KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 24): Former Khazanah Research Institute director Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid has been appointed as economic adviser to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

The appointment will take effect next Monday (Aug 27), the PMO announced in a statement today.

A trained economist with over 20 years of experience in various economic and financial sectors, Muhammed was also previously head of economics at the Securities Commission Malaysia and a senior analyst at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies or ISIS.

"He has also served as the Senior Technical Advisor at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Malaysia, and the Head of the Secretariat for the Council of Eminent Persons.

"He has been a consultant for the World Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)," the statement read.

A PhD (magna cum laude) holder from the Institut d’études Politiques de Paris (SciencesPo Paris), France, Muhammed also has a Master's degree in Economics from University Malaya and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, US.

Currently, he is the managing director and chief economist at DM Analytics Malaysia, the statement added.

Muhammed is also known as the author of the best-selling book 'Colours of Inequality' that was published in 2013, which seeks to provide an alternative insight to the debate on inequality in Malaysia by looking at the distribution of wealth or assets instead of income. In the book, Muhammad argues that despite the nation's tremendous increase in national income, the wealth gap is alarmingly high and skewed.

Read about some of his thoughts in The Edge Malaysia cover story: 'The growing wealth gap - A fate we can’t afford'