Jan 7 (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans on Thursday said he believes the Fed will likely hold rates near zero until 2024 to give inflation time to return to 2%.
"With continuations of labor market improvement, unemployment falling to 4% and hopefully below that, it's probably going to be 2024 before we see interest rates start to rise," Evans told a virtual meeting held by Wisconsin Bankers Association and Indiana Bankers Association.
At that point, he said, "we can start to gently increase the federal funds rate, while it will still be accommodative in order to sort of achieve this overshooting and average 2% (inflation)."
(Reporting by Ann Saphir Editing by Chris Reese)
