Irish prov Aug retail sales down 3.6 pct y/y

DUBLIN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The volume of Ireland's retail sales fell 0.4 percent in August to stand 3.6 percent lower on the year, provisional figures from the Central Statistics Office showed on Wednesday.

Excluding car sales, the volume of retail sales fell 3.7 percent in August from a year ago and dropped 0.5 percent month-on-month.

Final figures for July showed a monthly fall of 1.5 percent in retail sales volume to give a 1.3 percent drop on an annual basis. That compared to earlier provisional data showing a 0.5 percent decline in the month.

Economists expect retail sales to rise fall 1.7 percent this year according to the latest Reuters poll. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra)