Translated with AI assistance
The UAE’s non-oil trade turnover with BRICS countries exceeded $312 billion in 2025, growing by 28.5% year-on-year, reported UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi. The bloc’s members now account for approximately 31% of the Emirates’ total non-oil foreign trade. The largest partners within BRICS are China and India: trade with China reached $111.5 billion, surpassing the $100 billion mark for the first time.
Xi Jinping proposed establishing a partnership of special economic zones among BRICS countries to develop industrial cooperation, trade, and more resilient supply chains. The initiative is part of a broader package of China’s proposals for the economic integration of the expanded BRICS.
A practical follow-up will take place on September 23–27: the Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou will host the BRICS Special Economic Zones Dialogue, where a new report on SEZ development and best practices of cooperation will be presented.
BRICS countries are moving toward the creation of a BRICS Space Council. At last week’s BRICS summit in New Delhi, a draft regulation was prepared defining the tasks and operating principles of the future council, in which the parties noted progress in expanding the joint Earth remote sensing satellite system. Currently, it includes, in particular, the Indian satellites Resourcesat-2 and Resourcesat-2A, the Chinese Gaofen-6 and Ziyuan III-02, and Russian Kanopus-V series spacecraft.
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, stated that the council should handle the exchange of satellite data, the use of joint orbital constellations, and the preparation of shared missions.
Africa’s largest IPO in history has triggered a sharp surge of interest from retail investors. Following the launch of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery offering, traffic on the Bamboo investment platform increased tenfold within 30 minutes; outages also occurred at Cowrywise and InvestNaija, Reuters reports. The IPO aims to raise approximately $1.6 billion, with a minimum ticket of just about $4. Dangote expects to attract up to 10 million investors. The offering takes place against the backdrop of Africa’s broader return to domestic oil refining. In South Africa, the state-owned Central Energy Fund plans to restore the SAPREF refinery, which has been idle since 2022: first bringing capacity to 400,000 barrels per day, and then to 650,000. Today, national refineries meet only about 39% of the country’s fuel needs.
Moody’s raised its forecast for India’s GDP growth in the current financial year from 6% to 7%, explaining the revision by the economy’s greater-than-expected resilience to the energy shock in the Middle East. In April–June, the economy grew by 7.8% thanks to investments and an increase in industrial production. The agency still expects India to grow faster than all G20 economies and comparable emerging markets, but warns of risks from expensive energy, food inflation due to El Niño, and additional pressure on the budget.
