Consumers spent at a slower than expected pace in February, though underlying readings indicated that sales still grew at a solid pace despite worries over an economic slowdown and rising inflation.

Retail sales increased 0.2% on the month, better than the downwardly revised decline of 1.2% the prior month but below the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.6% increase, according to the advanced reading Monday from the Commerce Department. Excluding autos, the increase was 0.3%, in line with expectations.

The so-called control group, which strips out non-core sectors and feeds directly into gross domestic product calculations, rose a better than expected 1%.

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Both U.S. and global economic growth is set to be lower than previously projected, according to the latest estimates from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“Global GDP growth is projected to moderate from 3.2% in 2024, to 3.1% in 2025 and 3.0% in 2026, with higher trade barriers in several G20 economies and increased geopolitical and policy uncertainty weighing on investment and household spending,” the OECD said Monday in its interim Economic Outlook report.

“Annual GDP growth in the United States is projected to slow from its strong recent pace, to be 2.2% in 2025 and 1.6% in 2026.”

In its previous projections, published in December, the OECD had estimated 3.3% global economic growth this year and next. The U.S. economy had been expected to grow 2.4% in 2025 and 2.1% in 2026.

The OECD said its latest projections were “based on an assumption that bilateral tariffs between Canada and the United States and between Mexico and the United States are raised by an additional 25 percentage points on almost all merchandise imports from April.”

If the tariff increases were lower, or applied to fewer goods, economic activity would be stronger and inflation would be lower than projected, “but global growth would still be weaker than previously expected,” the report noted.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.