The US Federal Reserve will start to publish forecasts of its own interest rates for years into the future, in a permanent shift in how the world’s most important central bank conducts monetary policy.

The move, announced on Tuesday in the minutes of the Fed’s December policy meeting , is a victory for chairman Ben Bernanke, who has pressed for greater transparency at the Fed since he took over in 2006. It will give markets far more detailed information about how the Fed is likely to change policy in the future.

From its next meeting at the end of January, the Fed will replace its current guidance of exceptionally low interest rates “through mid-2013” with interest rate forecasts from each Fed policymaker for both the end of 2012 and the “next few calendar years” after that. All 17 members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee will also forecast when they expect interest rates to rise for the first time.