The central bank wasn't trying to signal a shift toward more-restrictive interest-rate policies in communications after its latest policy meeting, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said in an interview Friday.

Some investors took the outcome of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting, which concluded Wednesday, as a move toward a more "hawkish" monetary policy, meaning a shift toward raising interest rates a bit sooner and higher than expected. Mr. Kocherlakota, who was the lone dissenter...