SYDNEY, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Australian retail sector has lifted 0.4 percent in June, beating expectations of a 0.3-percent rise, according to Friday's retail trade report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The report showed that in the three months to June, the sector grew 1.2 percent in seasonally adjusted terms.

Although somewhat modest, the figures are a welcome sign for economists following a lackluster March quarter which saw Australian retail trade almost stagnant, with a marginal increase of 0.2 percent.

Across the categories in June, food retailing rose 0.4 percent, clothing, footwear and personal accessories jumped 1.7 percent, restaurant spending picked up 0.9 percent and household goods spending increased 0.4 percent.

But not every area managed to improve. Department store sales continued to decline, falling 1.2 for the month.

However while the data was mostly positive, economist Sarah Hunter from BIS Oxford Economics told local media that "broadly speaking growth remains very patchy."

"Given the ongoing weakness in wage and other income growth we expect this to continue through the rest of this year," she said.

The Australian dollar was largely unaffected by the data, sitting at 73.65 U.S. cents immediately after the release at 11:40 AEST.