Retail drop steepest in seven months

Retail sales in March registered the steepest drop in sevenmonths, the government said Tuesday in a report analysts took as asign of an uneven, rather than a derailed, economic recovery. TheCommerce Department said retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4percent from the previous month to $157.1 billion. The dip followedstrong gains of 1.3 percent in February and 2.1 percent in January.The figures are not adjusted for inflation. "It was inevitable thosehuge increases in January and February weren't sustainable," saideconomist Sandra Shaber of the Futures Group, a Washington-basedconsulting firm. "Consumers rained on the retail sector's Easterparade. . . . While consumer …