Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has sacked his economy and trade ministers as well as the top taxman after economic growth in the gas-exporting nation slowed and exports fell, state television said on Saturday. The Central Asian nation's gross domestic product growth slowed to 6.3 percent in the first quarter from 10.0 percent a year earlier, Berdymukhamedov told a government meeting which was held on Friday and broadcast on Saturday.
Citing "serious shortcomings" in their work, he then dismissed Economy and Development Minister Yaldesh Sheripov, Trade and Foreign Economic Relations Minister Bayar Abayev and chairman of the tax service, Shatlyk Khummedov. The World Bank expects full-year economic growth in the former Soviet republic 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.