Washington - US retail sales dropped in April for the second straight month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, surprising analysts as the country's economic downturn continues to press down consumer demand.

Home foreclosure filings meanwhile hit another record in April, though the pace of the increase has slowed. Foreclosure climbed less than 1 per cent from March to 342,038 households, but were up 32 per cent from April 2008, according to industry group RealtyTrac.

The mortgage crisis, which began in 2007, is considered at the heart of the US' worst recession since the Great Depression.

Retail sales fell 0.4 per cent in April from the previous month. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected sales to remain unchanged amid some signs that the economy had begun to recover. The March figures were also revised down slightly to a 1.3-per-cent decline from 1.2 per cent.