South African retail sales rose by 1.7 percent year-on-year in May, beating market expectations, after increasing by revised 2 percent in April, data from the statistics office showed on Wednesday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.3 percent year-on-year fall in retail sales in May.

On a month-on-month basis, sales rose by 0.9 percent and were up 1.5 percent in the three months to May compared with the same period last year, Statistics South Africa said.