Monti Cabinet Backs Spending Cuts to Replace Higher Taxes
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Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti replaced a looming sales-tax increase with a package of spending cuts, seeking to counter rising anger over the government’s demand for revenue.
Monti’s Cabinet approved 26 billion euros ($32 billion) of spending cuts over the next three years to delay for at least a year an increase in the value-added tax rate to 23 from 21, the prime minister’s office said in an e-mailed statement after a seven-hour meeting in Rome that ended at 1 a.m.