Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Thursday expressed hesitation about lowering interest rates further because the government shutdown has resulted in a blackout on key inflation data.

While Goolsbee has otherwise been an advocate for gradually lowering rates, the central bank official said during a CNBC interview that he has concerns over the lack of important price reports, particularly with general inflation recently trending higher.

"If there are problems developing on the inflation side, it's going to be a fair amount bit of time before we see that, where if it starts to deteriorate on the job market side, we're going to see that pretty much right away," Goolsbee said. "So that makes me even more uneasy ... with front-loading rate cuts and counting on the inflation

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