Ex-Fed official: Get ready for a long rate hike wait

With the Federal Reserve opting on Thursday to not hike interest rates for the first time in nine years, it looks like policymakers will wait until next year to make a move, a former New York Fed executive vice president, Dino Kos, said Friday.

"I don't see how enough changes for them to move by December, so we're in 2016 looking at the same factors," Kos, head of regulatory affairs at CLS Bank International, told CNBC's " Squawk Box " in an interview.

The Fed's dovish policy statement, released Thursday afternoon, cited global economic and market volatility concerns, which were explained further during central bank chief Janet Yellen 's news conference.

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"It's not what I was hoping for, but it is what I expected," Kos said. "You've got to start at some point and this is a pretty good time to start actually, given we've been in a recovery for six years. Growth is OK. To me, the indicators are looking pretty good."

Fed policymakers pared back their projections for economic growth to 2.3 percent for next year. The Fed pegged inflation at 1.7 percent in 2016, still below its 2 percent target, even as the unemployment rate falls to 4.8 percent.

"When is the Fed going to move rates?" Kos said, "The sort of stock answer is the same answer we've had for the last five years: six months from now."

"We've had one small piece of the exit, which was the taper, and even that took a long time to actually get to," he said.

The Fed ended its multiyear quantitative easing bond purchases a year ago next month, but it's been left with a balance sheet of $4.5 trillion.

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