HELSINKI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Finland will spend this year hundreds of millions of euros more hoping to boost the economy, ranging from infrastructure projects to worker retraining, it said on Friday.
Finland's Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen said the additional spending would raise its extra borrowing need to around 5.6 billion euros ($7.2 billion) in 2009, and boost gross domestic product in 2009 and 2010 by one percent in total.
The government did not give a total amount for the extra spending, but based on previous borrowing estimates the figure is some 300-400 million euros, of which 141 million alone will go towards road and rail projects.
"The extra budget's goal is to minimise the impact on employment of the international economic recession and help get through the difficult times," the government said in a statement.
The Finnish economic outlook has grown darker in the last week. Katainen has said GDP would fall by over two percent this year, and Finland may need to borrow up to 30 billion euros over the next three years.
(Reporting by Rauli Laitinen)