The International Monetary Fund has chosen Gita Gopinath to become its new chief economist, replacing Maurice Obstfeld, who is due to step down later this year.

Gopinath is a professor of international studies and economics at Harvard University. She co-directs the international finance and macroeconomics programme at the National Bureau of Economic Research, is a visiting scholar at the Boston Fed, and acts as an adviser to the New York Fed.

She also co-edits the American Economic Review and