The real estate bubble, created by industrial expansion and an overvalued currency, could not last indefinitely. Thai domestic factors began to come into play. The country began to be marked by excess supply of real estate property, rising wages of low-skilled laborers and consequent cost increases in production of exportable goods. At the same time, Thailand’s investments in infrastructure, industrial capacity and commercial real estate were sucking in foreign goods at unprecedented rates. This eroded Thai competitiveness in labor-intensive goods vis-à-vis late-starting industrial states such as China and Vietnam. Thailand's trade deficit mounted. Also, newly rising industrial states such as China and Vietnam were attracting new and greater rates of foreign investment, diverting funds that had once been invested in Thailand for the same purposes. Thai exports, which recorded a hefty growth of 24% in 1995, flattened to an almost negligible percentage a year before the baht's collapse.