ASHGABAT (TCA) — Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has sacked the country’s economy and trade ministers as well as the chief of the tax service, RFE/RL reported.
Economy and Development Minister Yaldesh Sheripov, Trade and Foreign Economic Relations Minister Bayar Abayev, and the chairman of the Tax Service, Shatlyk Khummedov, were dismissed on April 9.
Berdymukhammedov cited “serious shortcomings” in their work.
The dismissals come as economic growth in the gas-exporting nation has slowed and exports have fallen.
Turkmenistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 6.3 percent in the first quarter from 10 percent a year earlier, Berdymukhammedov told a government meeting on April 8.
The president said that today, the private sector accounts for 62.3 percent of the country’s GDP, official Turkmen media reported.
Berdymukhammedov also mentioned progress in the production of import substitution products and export of Turkmen products. In his words, Turkmenistan’s export in the first quarter of this year grew 11 percent on-year (even without energy exports in mind) while the import of consumer goods decreased by 18.9 percent.
The president said the country should continue increasing exports and the amount of its foreign-currency reserves.
The World Bank expects full-year economic growth in Turkmenistan to slow to 5.0 percent in 2016 from 6.5 percent a year earlier.
In 2013 and 2014, Turkmenistan’s gross domestic product had grown at double-digit rates.
Currently China is Turkmenistan’s leading buyer of natural gas while Russian gas giant Gazprom announced at the beginning of the year that it had ceased importing gas from the country.
