Retail sales in Bulgaria rose 5.9% in August from a year earlier, Eurostat says. That puts the country fourth among EU states for annual growth.

Only three countries did better in August: Sweden, up 7.7%, Cyprus, up 7.5%, and Estonia, up 6%. A month earlier, in July, Bulgaria ranked fifth, with growth of 5.6% on the year. Cyprus led then with 8.6%, followed by Latvia at 6.8%. Malta and Sweden tied for third place at 6.7% each.

Month on month, Bulgarian retail sales rose 0.3% in August from July. In July they had fallen 0.3% from June, while June had seen growth of 0.4% from May.

Retail sales across the EU and the eurozone both grew 0.1% in August from July. A month earlier the drop had been steeper: 0.5% for the EU and 0.6% for the eurozone compared with June. On the year, sales in August were up 1.2% across the EU and 0.8% in the eurozone.

Luxembourg saw the biggest monthly drop in August, down 9.4%, followed by Malta, down 1.9%, and Latvia, down 1.4%. The biggest monthly gains came in Romania, up 2.3%, Sweden, up 1.4%, and Germany, up 1.3%.

By category, annual growth across the EU in August stood at 1.4% for food, drinks and tobacco and 2.2% for non-food goods, while car fuel sales fell 1.9%. In the eurozone the same categories grew 1.6% and 1.7% on the year, while fuel prices dropped 3.7%.

Month on month, EU food sales rose 0.3% in August from July, non-food sales rose 0.5%, and car fuel sales fell 1.3%. In the eurozone, food sales rose 0.1%, non-food sales rose 0.5%, and fuel sales fell 1.9%.

The biggest annual declines in August were in Malta, down 2.4%, Spain, down 0.6%, Italy, down 0.5%, and Germany, down 0.4%.

Eurostat says the figures are preliminary, adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects, and reflect retailers' turnover in each country.