The Federal Reserve unanimously approved a new strategy that will effectively set aside a practice it has followed for more than three decades to pre-emptively lift interest rates to head off higher inflation.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell unveiled the updates in a speech set for delivery at a virtual symposium on 27 August, the most ambitious revamp of the Fed policy-setting framework since it was first approved in 2012. The practical effect is that it may be a very long time before the Fed considers raising interest rates.