Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said at a media briefing in Chicago on Wednesday that he thought it would be "reasonable" for the Fed to announce the beginning of a reduction of its balance sheet at its September meeting, while further interest-rate hikes might be delayed until December or even beyond.

"I personally think that it would be quite reasonable to that (start trimming the Fed's balance sheet) in September on the basis of the data that I've seen so far, even with the potentially temporary lower inflation data," Evans said.

If the Fed does make a decision to start the balance sheet reduction, "presumably that takes us to December," for any potential rate hike, he said, adding that the policymakers should be "very careful" in assessing the need for future rate hikes. He noted there would be "many more months of inflation data" to chew over at the December meeting. If inflation was weak, the regulator could put off another rate hike "until later," he said.