Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari told CNBC on Friday that he believes interest rates are "close to neutral."

Interest rates should not go up when job creation remains strong and inflation continues to be tame, Kashkari told CNBC, adding that raising rates too forcefully before necessary could risk causing a recession in the U.S. economy.

"For the three years since I've been at the Fed, we have been surprised by the labor market. We keep thinking we're at maximum employment. And then wage growth is tepid. And the headline unemployment rate drops further. Inflation has been well under control," he said.

"If the U.S. economy is creating 200,000 a jobs a month, month-after-month, we're not at maximum employment," he said.