With sales by gas stations showing another substantial decrease, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing that U.S. retail sales fell by more than anticipated in the month of January.

The report said retail sales fell by 0.8 percent in January after slumping by 0.9 percent in December. Economists had expected sales to drop by 0.5 percent.

The continued decrease in retail sales came as falling gasoline prices contributed to another steep drop in sales by gas stations.

Gas station sales plummeted by 9.3 percent in January, even steeper than the substantial 7.4 percent decrease seen in December.

The report also showed a continued decrease in auto sales, which fell by 1.0 percent in January after dipping by 0.5 percent in the previous month.

Excluding autos and gasoline, retail sales actually rose by 0.2 percent in January, although that was still weaker than expected.

Core retail sales, which also exclude building materials, edged up by just 0.1 percent in January after falling by 0.3 percent in December.

The modest uptick in core sales was partly due to a 2.6 percent jump in sales by miscellaneous retailers, but the increase was offset by a 2.6 percent slump in sales by sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores.

Rob Carnell, chief international economist at ING, said, "Given that low gasoline prices should be freeing up dollars for households to spend on other goods, it does not seem that this is unleashing much higher spending for now.

"If this continues, it might throw as little more downside risk to the June rate hike view," Carnell added, referring to expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this year.

The Commerce Department noted that total retail sales in the month of January were up by 3.3 percent compared to the same month a year ago, unchanged from the annual rate of growth seen in December.