Hungary will not be ready to seriously consider using the euro until its general development level reaches 90 percent of the average for the eurozone, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said following a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The cabinet meeting was held in the village of Kemes, a tiny village north of Hungary's border with Croatia, Hungarian News Agency MTI reported.

"First the country would have to reach that level of development and then we can seriously consider what our next steps will be," Orban said, adding that until then Hungary would have to focus on bolstering its own economy.

Orban said he believed that the European Union had made mistakes in managing economic policy connected to enlargement.

"Although Hungary has its own currency, we realize it is in Europe and cannot remain separate from events going on around us," Orban said.

At the same time, a significant portion of the European economy is currently in the hands of the speculators, he noted, and Hungary was as vulnerable as everyone else.

He pointed to recent ups-and-downs in the forint exchange rate, blaming speculators, but adding that the country had managed to overcome the problem.

"Our goal is to handle speculation by operating a stable economy and firm monetary policy that will allow us to set things right quickly," Orban said.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg wire service erroneously reported that Hungary's central bank had cut its benchmark interest rate by 400 points (by 4 percent), to one percent. Although Bloomberg corrected the error within seconds, the forint took a nosedive, but quickly returned to its earlier rate of 298-299 per euro (389 US Dollars).