The bureau said four activities of crop production, livestock, forestry and fishing make up the agriculture sector.
The NBS disclosed this in its “GDP Report for the Fourth and Full Year 2018’’ posted on its website.
The report said the 18.58 percent growth showed an increase of 8.45 percent points from the same quarter of 2017, and 0.26 percent points increase from third quarter, 2018.
According to the report, crop production remains the major driver of the sector, accounting for 89.84 percent of nominal agriculture GDP.
On an annual basis, agriculture GDP grew by 14.27 percent, higher than 11.29 percent recorded in 2017.
The sector contributed 23.08 percent to nominal GDP in fourth quarter, 2018 which was higher than its contribution in the preceding quarter (21.93 percent), but lower than it was in third quarter, 2018 (25.52 percent ).
On an annual basis, the sector contributed 21.42 percent to nominal GDP in 2018.
In real terms, the agricultural sector grew by 2.46 percent (year-on-year), a decrease by –1.78 percent points from the corresponding period of 2017, but an increase of 0.55 percent points from the preceding quarter.
The report said that annual 2018 growth was 2.12 percent, which was lower than the 3.45 percent recorded in 2017.
The sector contributed 26.15 percent to overall GDP in real terms during the further quarter, slightly higher than the contribution in the fourth quarter of 2017 (26.13 percent ), but lower than the third quarter of 2018 (29.25 percent).
Agriculture sector contribution to real GDP in 2018 was recorded at 25.13 percent, up from 25.08 percent in 2017.
Meanwhile, the report said that the nominal GDP for the manufacturing sector was recorded at 33.57 percent in the fourth quarter, which was higher in the corresponding period of 2017.
The report said it was 24.37 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding period of 2017 (9.20 percent) but only 0.84 per cent points higher than the preceding quarter’s (32.73 percent).
Quarter-on -quarter, the growth of the sector stood at 6.62 percent while the annual growth was 24.00 percent in 2018.
The contribution of manufacturing to nominal GDP in fourth quarter, 2018 was 10.11 percent, which was higher than its contribution in the corresponding period of 2017 (8.53 percent) and third quarter, 2018 (10.01 percent).
For 2018, the sector contributed 9.75 percent to total nominal GDP, higher than its contribution of 8.83 percent in 2017.