Retail sales in Australia are slowly recovering, with the Bureau of Statistics reporting an increase of 0.6 per cent in August, for the second consecutive month.

Sales reached $20.813 billion from $20.679 billion in July, which also logged a similar 0.6 per cent hike.

The rise was higher than economists' forecast of a 0.2 per cent. One economist linked the improved retail sales to interest rate decisions.

"Prior to August, consumers were expecting rate hikes, but with the eruption of global volatility in August, that was taken off the trade. ... That likely encouraged consumers to spend," Brisbane Times quoted Moody's Economy.com analyst Katrina Ell.

The slight improvement in the retail industry was led by household good sales, which went up 1.7 per cent and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services grew 0.2 per cent. But department store sales dipped 0.8 per cent; clothing, footwear and accessories sales declined 0.3 per cent.

Ell attributed the dip in department store sales to competition from Internet retailers.

"I guess we've got to bear in mind that retail sales are only a third of private consumption and expenditure on some broader measures has been reasonably resilient.... Consumers are proving fairly resilient despite very volatile financial markets, a softer labour market and weaker confidence," RBC senior economist Su-Lin Ong told the Business Spectator.

The retail sales data came out the day after Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens kept the cash rate at 4.75 per cent for the 11th straight month.

"At the end of the day I think it's the global factors that are more key for the RBA at the moment, they seem to be deteriorating and posing a greater risk to medium-term growth," Ong added.