Continuing economic pressures on consumers combined with cold weather and the impact of an early Easter to give leading US retailers a miserable April, according to same-store sales figures published on Thursday.

Ken Perkins, head of Retail Metrics, said 80 per cent of the leading chain stores reporting same-store sales figures missed Wall Street forecasts, which he described as the worst performance he could remember. Retail Metrics’ index of same-store sales fell 1.8 per cent for the month, after a 6 per cent increase in March.