iShares, BlackRock's exchange-traded funds business, has launched a new iShares MSCI Colombia Capped ETF, complementing the iShares Latin and South American ETF line-up, which is the largest in terms of number of funds in the US.

The new iShares MSCI Colombia Capped ETF is designed to track the MSCI All Colombia Capped Index, which is a broad-based Colombia equity market index. The index includes companies that are headquartered or listed in Colombia and have the majority of their operations based in Colombia.

According to the IMF, Colombia has the third largest population among Latin and South American countries, with a growing educated and entrepreneurial middle class and a higher realised GDP growth than Brazil due to demand for its oil, natural gas and coal. Meanwhile, the World Bank, believes there is an increasing amount of foreign investment in Colombia because of strong fiscal management, gradually declining debt, positive trading ties with the world and business-friendly economic policies focused on deregulation, the firm said.

“Colombia has been referred to as the ‘new Brazil.’ Institutional and retail investors now have an efficient means to access one of the world’s most exciting economies, whether implementing a short-term tactical strategy or building a long-term diversified global portfolio,” said Patrick Dunne, head of iShares global markets and investments at BlackRock.

At the start of the year, iShares said that it had garnered $85.3 billion in new flows in 2012, representing almost a third of the $262.7 billion global exchange-traded product industry.