Kazakh President appoints finance minister

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed his aide Alikhan Smailov as the country's  finance minister, continuing a broader government reshuffle.

Smailov, 45, had earlier worked as the country's deputy finance minister, deputy foreign minister and head of the state statistics committee.

He replaced Bakhyt Sultanov, who this month became mayor of Astana, the capital city, after running the Finance Ministry for almost five years.

Nazarbayev also replaced his veteran chief of staff this month, Reuters recalls.