Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen resumed her schedule at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Thursday after struggling to finish a speech and receiving medical attention, a Fed official said.
A university spokesman said she would attend a dinner event as planned.
“Chair Yellen felt dehydrated at the end of a long speech under bright lights,” Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith said in an emailed statement. “As a precaution, she was seen by EMT staff on-site at U-Mass Amherst. She felt fine afterward and has continued with her schedule Thursday evening.”
Yellen, 69, who had been speaking for roughly an hour, coughed and stopped to recompose herself several times while reading her speech. She abruptly said, “I think I will end here”. She stayed on the stage a few minutes longer and then walked off.
Another university official said the Fed chair walked upstairs without assistance.
The incident follows an intense week in which Yellen and her central bank colleagues, after a much anticipated central bank policy-setting meeting, kept U.S. interest rates on hold in a decision that unsettled financial markets
