South African retail sales rose by 5.5 percent year-on-year in August, beating market expectations, after increasing by a revised 1.6 percent in July, data from the statistics office showed on Wednesday.

Reuters analysts had forecasted a 2.3 percent year-on-year increase in retail sales in August.

On a month-on-month basis, sales were up 2.4 percent and rose 3.4 percent in the three months to August compared with the same period last year, Statistics South Africa said.