The 37-year-old replaces Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz Al-Sabah, who resigned last month after 25 years in the job.
Al-Hashel, who has a postgraduate degree in finance from Old Dominion University in Virginia, had been serving as Sheikh Salem’s deputy since January 2009.
Al-Hashel is also a member of the technical committee of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), according to his biography posted on the central bank’s website.
Kuwait pegs its dinar to an undisclosed basket of currencies of major trading partners, which is believed to be heavily US dollar-dominated.
That makes the OPEC member’s central bank keep its policy broadly aligned with US benchmarks although it is less exposed to the greenback’s fluctuations than in the case of a direct peg.
Kuwait dropped the direct dollar link in 2007 to rein in rising inflation, which climbed as high as 11.6 percent in August 2008.
