During this period, one of the major factors affecting the Thai economy was the financial liberalization over the years 1990 to 1993, and this was linked to the second phase of the boom in the first half of the 1990s.13 The liberalization coincided with a critical period in the capital markets of the developed world – both Europe and Japan suffered from low domestic investment, high liquidity, and low interest rates. Thus, money flooded into Thailand. In the early 1990s, total private inflows were running at 20 times the level of the mid-1980s. In 1995 alone, more money flowed in than over the entire decade of the 1980s. The nature of money flows also differed. Instead of direct investment, more funds came in as bank loans and portfolio capital. Among others, these capital inflows undermined export growth, fuelled a domestic market boom, and created bubbles in asset markets. By the early 1990s the export boom had already begun to falter. A growing current account deficit, labor shortages, and infrastructure bottlenecks signaled a downturn in the Thai economy.