Sierra Leone's economic growth should quicken to an inflation-adjusted rate of 9 percent this year from 7.5 percent in 2006 as the country recovers from a brutal civil war, central bank chief James Rogers said on Friday.

With less than two weeks until Aug. 11 presidential and parliamentary polls, the first since U.N. peacekeepers left in 2005, the West African state's top monetary official said solid economic prospects were underpinned by a post-war recovery in agriculture, mining and construction.

"We have one of the fastest growing economies in the sub-region," Rogers, governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, told Reuters in an interview.

"Real GDP (gross domestic product) growth was at 7.5 percent in 2006 and we're projecting 9 percent by the end of 2007."

He expressed concern, however, at a sharp rise in inflation this year, fuelled partly by a prolonged general strike at the start of the year in neighbouring Guinea.

"Due to the rise in petrol prices and the crisis earlier this year in Guinea, which prevented commodities coming over the border, inflation has now gone up from 8.5 percent in December last year to 11.1 percent last month," he said.

"We are worried about that as our objective is to achieve consistent single-digit inflation."

Last year's resumption in exports of rutile, a mineral used in making paints and plastics, has boosted foreign exchange in the country. Titanium Resources Group (TRG) reported 2006 sales of $51.3 million from its combined rutile and bauxite operations in Sierra Leone.

Official diamond exports were worth $123 million in 2006, compared with $42 million in 2002, when illegal smuggling rates immediately after the end of the 1991-2002 civil war were much higher.

"Our national reserves have grown from a pittance -- $27 million four years ago -- to about $185-200 million now," said Rogers. "It's a good buffer for us."

Sierra Leone faces a long climb out of poverty. After more than a decade of stagnation, GDP is less than $1 billion, not even 0.1% of the British economy. More than 70 percent of the estimated 5 million population live below the poverty line.

"Foreign direct investment has not taken off as was expected," said Rogers. "One of the reasons is that the basic economic infrastructure is not in place yet, especially energy and power supply. Most investors are playing a wait and see game."

Rogers said business still faces prohibitively high commercial borrowing rates of 25 percent and more.

Debt clearance worth $1.6 billion at the end of 2006 has freed up government revenues for more productive spending, but donors still fund more than 30 percent of the national budget.

"If you discount international donor flows then we are only growing at 4-5 percent," said Rogers, noting that many Sierra Leoneans felt they had not yet shared in the country's gradual economic recovery.

"People feel the benefits of the country's growth are not translated into investment, health, education and infrastructure ... but there is usually an interval between achieving that growth and the benefits filtering down."