WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Dennis Lockhart, the president of the Atlanta Fed, said he is wouldn't mind if the U.S. central bank was "a little bit late" with the first rate hike. "If the committee is to err on the side of being a little late as viewed by history writers or maybe a little early, I prefer to take the risk of being a little bit late," Lockhart said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday. Lockhart, seen as a centrist on the Fed policy committee, will have a vote on policy decisions this year. The Atlanta Fed president said he still thinks the first rate hike will come mid-year or later. The December jobs report was no reason to speed up the timing of an interest-rate increase, he said."I don't see a reason yet to accelerate my assumption of when a policy move might be appropriate," Lockhart said.