Spain’s new conservative government, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, announced Friday an austerity package that includes spending cuts of 8.9 billion euros ($11.5 billion) and an increase in the income tax.

Barely 10 days into its term, the Popular Party administration presented the measures as “the beginning of the beginning of some indispensable structural adjustments to reduce the deficit and energize the Spanish economy.”

The deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, said Spain will end 2011 with a cumulative public sector deficit equal to 8 percent of gross domestic product, “much more elevated than what the previous government had communicated and promised.”