The Federal Reserve may be in a position to pause rate cuts and take stock, a senior official said Friday, as the US central bank continues its fight against inflation.

The Fed voted last month to leave its key lending rate unchanged following three consecutive cuts, holding it at between 4.25 and 4.50 percent.

Policymakers have since indicated they are in no hurry to continue lowering rates as the Fed grapples with a recent uptick in inflation, and uncertainty about US trade policy under President Donald Trump.

"My hope is that we don't see a rebound of inflation," Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said in an interview with Yahoo Finance, adding it would be "a foggier, dustier kind of environment" for the US central bank if such a scenario came to pass.

"We may be on hold," added Goolsbee, who has a vote on the Fed's rate-setting committee this year.

"But I see over the next 12 to 18 months, if we can get out of the uncertainty coming from policy, or from geopolitics and commodities, I view the long-run settling rate for the fed funds rate to be (a) fair bit below where it is today," he said.

Financial markets currently see an almost-95 percent chance that the Fed will remain on hold at its next interest rate decision in March, according to data from CME Group.

Goolsbee also addressed the uncertainty about US trade policy following President Trump's recent moves to impose sweeping tariffs on US trading partners including China, Canada and Mexico.

Trump settled for a 30-day pause on tariffs against Canada and Mexico, but went ahead with a 10 percent levy on Chinese goods, leading Beijing to respond with retaliatory duties against the United States.

An escalating tariff war could act like a "wrench" in the global supply chain, Goolsbee said, adding he hoped that the ongoing tariff discussions did not end up causing a "big impediment" to actual trade.