The United States Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen said on Monday that she would resign as a member of its Board of Governors once her successor is sworn in.
The 71-year-old was appointed to the board by former United States President Barack Obama. Though her four-year term as the chairperson expires in February 2018, her term as a member of the board ends in January 2024, according to a statement by the Federal Reserve. She was the first woman to head the central bank.
On November 2, President Donald Trump had nominated Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell, known as a “soft-spoken centrist”, as the next head of the US Federal Reserve. Trump’s decision not to reappoint Yellen marks a break with the norm of presidents reappointing competent Fed chairs they inherited from their predecessor, reports had said.
In her resignation letter to Trump, Yellen said that it had been a “great privilege” to work at the central bank for “three eventful decades”. One of Yellen’s achievements include her steering the economy after it had begun to recover from the financial crisis of 2007-’09.
“As I prepare to leave the board, I am gratified that the financial system is much stronger than a decade ago, better able to withstand future bouts of instability,” she said. “I am also gratified by the substantial improvements in the economy since the crisis.”
She added that 17 million jobs had been created over the past eight years, which is close to achieving the Federal Reserve’s “statutory objectives of maximum employment and price stability”. Sustaining this process, however, will “require continued monitoring of, and decisive responses to, newly emerging threats to financial and economic stability”, she added.
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