Sales of food, beverages and tobacco products went up 0.3% on the month, in data adjusted for the number of working days and seasonal factors.
Fuel sales declined 3.2% compared with June, while sales of non-food items were down 1%.
In annual terms, adjusted retail sales rose 7.6% in July, helped by higher demand in most sectors, INS data showed.
Food sales went up 9.7% compared with July 2013, while non-food sales increased 9.4%, but sales of fuels fell by 4.3% on the year.
In the first seven months of 2014, adjusted retail sales were up 8.1% compared with the year-earlier period, boosted by growing demand across the board.
In unadjusted data, retail sales increased 6.3% in July from a month earlier, and were up 6.3% compared with the same period of 2013.