Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank is likely to rely more on public communications as a policy tool as it seeks to provide clarity about the likely future path of interest rates.

“The FOMC continues to explore ways to further increase transparency about its forecasts and policy plans,” Bernanke said today in a speech in Boston. “Forward guidance and other forms of communication about policy can be valuable even when the zero lower bound is not relevant, and I expect to see increasing use of such tools in the future.”

Bernanke and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee have approved untested policy tools at their last two meetings to spur a recovery that has left the unemployment rate stuck near 9 percent or higher for 30 consecutive months. The central bank in August pledged to hold interest rates near zero until mid-2013, and in September the Fed announced it will swap $400 billion of short-term debt for longer-term securities in a bid to lower interest rates.