The U.S. Federal Reserve has switched from a stance that was "too hawkish" at the end of last year to "too dovish" presently, according to Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz's chief economic advisor.

While such a drastic swing is not expected to hit the U.S. economy in a big way, it has contributed to greater volatility in financial markets globally, he told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Friday. El-Erian is widely followed for his views on the world economy and markets.

"I think they went a little too far," he said, referring to the Fed. "In the fourth quarter, they certainly were too hawkish ... and now I think they have swung too dovish."

The American central bank last December raised its benchmark funds rate by 25 basis points — the fourth increase in 2018 and the ninth since the Fed started normalizing rates at the end of 2015. Three months later, in March, the Fed decided to hold interest rates steady and indicated that it may not hike rates at all this year.

El-Erian said the U.S. economy "is still in a good place," so he's surprised that the central bank appeared to have given up on the option to tweak monetary policy for the rest of the year. In fact, he predicted that the U.S. could grow by 2.5 percent to 3 percent this year. In 2018, the U.S. economy grew by 2.9 percent.