Growth in South Africa's economy accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2017, helped by the agriculture sector, the statistics agency said on Tuesday.

Gross domestic product expanded by 3.1% during the quarter, after increasing by an upwardly revised 2.3% in the previous three months, Statistics South Africa said.

"The largest positive contributor to growth in GDP in the fourth quarter was the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry, which increased by 37.5% and contributed 0.8 of a percentage point to GDP growth," the agency said.

The trade, catering and accommodation industry grew 4.8%, adding 0.6 percentage points to GDP while the manufacturing industry and finance, real estate and business services increased by 4.3% and 2.5% respectively, and each contributed 0.5 percentage points.

Mining and and quarrying however shrank by 4.4%, taking away 30 basis points from the overall GDP number for the fourth quarter.

Economic growth in South Africa is starting to show some momentum after a sluggish decade following a recession in 2008/9.

Last month, the National Treasury revised the 2017 growth figure up to 1% from an earlier forecast of 0.7% and said growth would quicken to 1.5% in 2018 and 2.1% by 2020.