The government has taken the calculated risk of high fiscal deficit to help stimulate growth, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.

Speaking at an interactive session with industry leaders in New Delhi, Mukherjee, however, added that the government would strive to bring the deficit down to 4 per cent in the next two years, as a fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent was on the higher side.

Setting a target of bringing down the fiscal deficit to 5.5 per cent in 2010-11 and 2011-12, he said the his ministry would work in the next seven - eight months to achieve this target.

Mukherjee said the government has taken the risk of letting the fiscal deficit rise to achieve a higher growth rate as "The global economic slowdown is likely to continue in the current financial year... (but) we must come back to the growth path as fast as possible."

Mukherjee admitted to the risk of a high deficit, sasying, "No doubt, I have taken a risk... We cannot say we are out of the economic slowdown as yet," he said.

Mukherjee also ruled out any roll back of the stimulus measures announced earlier by the government, adding "A single budget cannot solve all the problems," he added.