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He said the past 12 months have posed serious problems for the private sector, including disrupted supply chains, skills shortages, and further waves of COVID-19.
"COVID-19 has affected every sector of the global economy and our national life; nothing, in its path, has been spared its ravages," he said.
According to him, the economy of Ghana which was growing at an average of 7% in 2017, in 2018 and in 2019, grew by 0.4% in 2020, because of growth in the industry, services, tourism, and manufacturing sectors, which drive the economy and provide jobs for many Ghanaians, contracted dramatically in 2020, as a result of the sudden disruption in the global supply chain and the steep decline in the global economy, which sent the global economy into recession.
In his Christmas message to Ghanaians on Friday, December 24, 2021, he stated that "for the bold and timely measures put in place by Government to cushion Ghanaians against the worst effects of the pandemic, our situation would have been more precarious.
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"For the purposes of propaganda and narrow partisan and parochial interests, some would have you believe that the difficulties we are facing are purely Ghanaian phenomena, made by the NPP government under my leadership. Pay no heed to such persons. They know the truth, but cannot speak it."
He indicated that the government has designed a solid programme for the recovery and revitilisation of the economy, which is the one hundred-billion-cedi Ghana CARES 'Obaatampa' Programme.
The government, he noted has completed the implementation of the stabilisation phase in 2021, which saw the economy grow at 6.6% in the 3rd quarter of 2021, with a projected overall growth of 4.4% for 2021. 2022 and 2023 will be the years of Recovery and Revitilisation and faster economic growth.