IMF appoints new chief economist

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced on Monday the appointment of Professor Maurice Obstfeld as the IMF's Economic Counselor and Director of the Research Department.

Obstfeld succeeds Olivier Blanchard, whose retirement was announced previously. He is expected to begin his work at the Fund on Sept. 8, 2015.

"I am thrilled to have Maurice join us at the Fund. His outstanding academic credentials and extensive international experience make him exceptionally well placed to provide intellectual leadership to the IMF at this important juncture," Lagarde said in a statement.

"He is known around the globe for his work on international economics and is considered one of the most influential macroeconomists in the world," she added.

A professor of economics and former chair of the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, Obstfeld has advised many governments and consulted at central banks all over the world. He is currently a member of U.S. President Barack Obama 's Council of Economic Advisers, on leave from Berkeley.

Obstfeld is the co-author of two seminal textbooks on international economics -- Foundations of International Macroeconomics with former IMF Economic Counselor Kenneth Rogoff, and International Economics with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz -- as well as more than 100 research articles on exchange rates, international financial crises, global capital markets and monetary policy.

He received his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1979 after earning a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Cambridge University. He joined Berkeley in 1989 as a professor. He was also a visiting professor at Harvard from 1989 to 1991.

He was also a research fellow at the IMF on four separate occasions, most recently in 2012.

"The position of Economic Counselor is of fundamental importance to the IMF's ability to provide its global membership with the best possible independent analysis and policy advice. I am confident that we have found an exceptional candidate in Maurice to take this work forward," Lagarde said in the statement. Enditem