MADRID — Spanish budget minister Cristobal Montoro said Friday that the government will cut €27 billion ($36 billion) from its budget this year, in an effort to bring down borrowing in the country that is currently at the center of financial market worries.

In comments to reporters, Montoro said governmental ministries would need to cut their budgets by 16.9 percent this year and that salaries of public workers would be frozen.

“The government is stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said during the budget announcement. “People say no, we cannot take any more austerity cuts, but international lenders who buy bonds say you have to make cuts, or you will not be able to borrow anymore.”

The deputy minister also said corporations will have to pay higher taxes in Spain this year, but the government reportedly will not increase value-added taxes.

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