Turkmenistan gross output up 120 pct in Q1-c.banker

MADRID May 6 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan enjoyed triple digit growth in gross output in the first three months of 2008 thanks to its reform policy, while investments into the economy rose by nearly 60 percent, the deputy central bank chairman said on Tuesday.

Statistical data is scarce in the gas-producing Caspian nation bordering Iran and Afghanistan. The government has vowed to improve transparency and attract more foreign investors. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank, Dovlet Ahatov said gross output grew by 120.3 percent in the first three months of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007.

He added that the foreign trade surplus amounted to $896.5 million in the first quarter, up 27.3 percent on the year, while investments in the economy totalled 3.7 trillion Turkmen manats, 57.7 percent higher than the same period last year. Last week, the central bank set the unified exchange rate at 14,250 manat per dollar, according to the Turkmen state news agency.

"The new reform policy... is aimed at strengthening and augmenting the economic strength of the state," Ahatov told delegates.

"The positive trends in the economy of Turkmenistan continued... all branches of the economy contributed to this high growth."

President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who came to power in late 2006 after the death of his absolutist predecessor, has pledged a broad reform plan including an overhaul of the domestic financial system and accounting, which has in the past confused foreign investors sizing up opportunities there.

Turkmenistan's vast untapped gas reserves, as well as its strategic proximity to Iran, have attracted interest among investors in Asia, Europe and the United States.

(Reporting by Natsuko Waki)