Italian parliament passes austerity package (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? The Italian parliament gave final approval on Wednesday to a 54 billion euro package of austerity measures the center-right government has put forward to balance the budget by 2013.

The Lower House voted 314 to 300 in favor of the package of measures, which include a one percentage point hike in value added tax and cuts to government spending.

Approval was expected after the government comfortably won a confidence vote in the Lower House earlier in the day.

The upper house Senate approved the austerity plan on September 7.

(Reporting By James Mackenzie)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110914/bs_nm/us_italy_austerity

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