The Federal Reserve announced Thursday that it would temporarily allow inflation to run above target as needed to make up for periods of below-target inflation, a major change in strategy that is likely to result in looser money as a means of ensuring faster recoveries.

The alteration of the central bank’s long-term goals, a change a year in the making, reflects the Fed’s experience with the recovery from the Great Recession. During that time, it saw unemployment fall lower than officials ever expected, without stoking the kind of inflation that would have been expected.