BUDAPEST, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Hungary has escaped financial collapse and can come off IMF aid but it is not yet on safeground and must stick to budget cuts to be able to adopt the euro, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said on Wednesday.
Bajnai said the global crisis has shown that having the euro gives stability and Hungary needs to adopt the single currency as soon as possible. But the country must improve its competitiveness and return to sustainable growth before joining the euro zone, he said.
"Hungary has turned away from the edge of the cliff. But now has to climb up the mountain. And this is a very difficult task," Bajnai told Reuters in an interview.
"And if we are not careful, we could roll back and fall off the edge of the cliff, so we need to keep to this difficult but worthwhile path which we started."
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Angus MacSwan)