The government promoted Urjit Patel, a deputy governor in charge of monetary policy at the Reserve Bank of India, to serve as next RBI governor for a three-year term, it said on Saturday. He has run the central bank’s monetary policy department since 2013. He will start his three-year term on September 4.

He will replace Raghuram Rajan, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist who stunned financial markets in June by announcing he would step down in September and return to academia after a single three-year term at the RBI.

Dr. Urjit Patel obtained his BA from the London School of Economics and pursued his Ph.D. from Yale University.

The government is soon expected to announce the composition of a six-member monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates. It will be made up of himself and two other RBI officials, along with three members appointed by the government.

The new governor takes over at a time when inflation has bust out of the top end of that range. Consumer inflation accelerated to 6.07 per cent in July, the fourth consecutive month it has stayed above the RBI’s near-term target of 5 per cent by March.