Commerce Department figures announced Friday showed a 0.6% increase for U.S. retail and food-services sales in August, the largest rise in four months. The government also revised its July figure from an estimate of zero to 0.3% growth.

Retail sales rose to a seasonally adjusted $444.4 billion, which was 5% above August 2013.

Back-to-school sales-tax holidays helped to boost sales in August. But department stores and other general-merchandise stores experienced a small decrease in sales.

Total sales for the June-through-August period were up 4.5% from the same period a year ago.

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