Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said countries seeking to rapidly bring down their deficits risk damaging the economic growth needed to do so.

“Fiscal contractions are likely to be just that -- contractions -- and they run the risk of backfiring,” he said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 broadcast today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Atkinson at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net