US central bankers are divided over the near-term risk of inflation and disagree over the timing of interest rate hikes into next year, minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting showed Wednesday.

Monetary policymakers were also divided on the timeframe for winding down the Fed's multi-trillion-dollar investment holdings, with some arguing the central bank should announce this within "a couple of months," the minutes showed.

Some members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the benchmark US interest rate, also expressed concern that Wall Street stocks were overvalued.