Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said in a speech on Thursday that he wants to be confident that inflation begins to pick up toward the Fed's target before to start raising interest rates.

"Before raising rates, I would like to have more confidence than I do today that inflation is indeed beginning to head higher. Given the current low level of core inflation, some evidence of true upward momentum in actual inflation is critical to this assessment," he said.

"I believe that it could well be the middle of next year before the headwinds from lower energy prices and the stronger dollar dissipate enough so that we begin to see some sustained upward movement in core inflation," Evans added.

Chicago Fed president pointed out that the Fed should hike its interest rate gradually.

Evans is a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee this year.