A sustained pick-up in exports has been crucial to the Japanese economic recovery, Hirohide Yamaguchi, a deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, told business leaders in Kagoshima prefecture on Wednesday.

After having bottomed out in March last year, exports had risen for nine straight months, while production had increased for ten in a row, Yamaguchi said. However, the pace of this rebound was bound to level off, he said. "The momentum for restocking is bound to diminish as inventory approaches