MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish retail sales rose 0.4 percent year-on-year on a calendar-adjusted basis in August, the biggest increase since May, according to data from the National Statistics Institute(INE) on Monday.
That follows a 0.2 percent contraction in retail sales in July. Retail sales have shown signs of picking up in 2014 after a three-year period when they mostly fell, as unemployment in Spain soared.
Retail sales had been expected to drop 0.3 percent year-on-year in August, according to a Reuters poll.
(Reporting by Sarah White, Editing by Paul Day)