Cash-strapped Spanish shoppers and small businesses were resigned to more pain on Saturday, as everyday living costs like heating, phone bills, clothes and haircuts all become more expensive following a hike in value-added tax (VAT).

 

Spain's center-right government has raised its main VAT rate by three percentage points to 21 percent as part of a drive to slash 65 billion euros ($82 billion) from the public deficit by 2014 and save the country from a full international bailout.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/struggling-spanish-consumers-have-just-been-hit-with-a-crippling-tax-hike-2012-9#ixzz25Fy2ogj9