By Tony Romeo

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - Pennsylvania’s top revenue official says lower than expected tax collections show the outlook for economic growth is modest at best.

Pennsylvania’s revenue collections for August were almost two percent below projections, putting the Commonwealth at just around one-percent below estimates for the first two months of the new fiscal year.

The good news is that those projections for the first two months were set higher than for July and August of last year, meaning that year-to-year, collections are up more than $100 million dollars. The bad news, says Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser, is that the main reason projections were not met was less-than-expected sales tax revenue.

“It is an indication that people aren’t spending money. The economy, again, is in a fragile state. The indicators do not indicate any level of strong growth.”

Nonetheless, Meuser says he’s optimistic that revenue collections will improve and come in closer to estimates as the year progresses.