South Africa retail sales up 2.4% in July

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa's retail sales rose 2.4 percent year-on-year in July, above market expectations and compared with 0.9 percent contraction in June.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales would increase by just 0.3 percent compared with the same month last year.

On a month-on-month basis, sales were up 1.2 percent, and rose 1.4 percent in the three months to July compared with the same period in 2013.