Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer warned Saturday that the US central bank will not wait for inflation to hit two percent before raising interest rates.

In a speech at a conference on monetary policy in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Fed's number two said: "We should not wait until inflation is back to two percent to begin tightening."

He added, however, that the Fed needed to "consider the overall state of the US economy as well as the influence of foreign economies on the US economy as we reach our judgment on whether and how to change monetary policy."