Credit From News Services  
As the administration studied possible selective credit controls to slow inflation, the Federal Reserve Board yesterday reported that American consumers expanded their use of credit by $1.37 billion in January, virtually the same as. the previous month.</br></br>Other reports from the Commerce Department showed a drop in retail sales in February of 0.7 percent, possibly indicating an end to a pattern of increasing consumer spending, and a January rise in sales of new singlefamily homes that still didnÛªt get sales up to their pace a year earlier.</br></br>And a business-sponsored research organization reported that large manufacturing companies increased appropriations for capital investments by 33 percent last year.</br></br>The resulting $1.37 billion credit gap was slightly larger than DecemberÛªs $1.35 billion, the Federal Reserve said.</br></br>On an annual basis, the percentage rate of growth during both December and January was 5.3 percent, the slowest pace since early 1975.