Kazakh president sacks government for economic failures

Kazakhstan's long-ruling President Nursultan Nazarbayev dismissed the government on Thursday, citing a lack of economic development despite the Central Asian nation's vast energy resources.

"In many areas of the economy, despite the adoption of many laws and government decisions, positive changes have not been achieved," Nazarbayev said in a statement on the presidential website.

While some ministers and deputy ministers are likely to be reinstated, the decision marks the end of Bakytzhan Sagintayev's premiership, which began in 2016.

The 55-year-old was viewed by some analysts as part of a leadership transition in the country, which 78-year-old Nazarbayev has ruled over for close to three decades.

An order on the presidential website said Sagintayev would be replaced temporarily by former deputy prime minister Askar Mamin, 53, ahead of the formation of a new cabinet.

Nazarbayev's decision comes amid rising dissatisfaction in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic whose commodity-dependent economy has struggled to recover from a 2014 plunge in oil prices and Western sanctions against Russia, a key trading partner.

"GDP growth is mainly achieved due to raw materials," Nazarbayev said in the statement.

"But the government together with the National Bank did not manage to fully create real incentives and tools for high-quality economic growth."