President Nana Akufo-Addo on Tuesday painted a bleak picture of the economy during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) to parliament.
He said the economy he inherited from the John Mahama administration was in doldrums, something he said was typified by high public debt and slow GDP growth.
He said the former administration had 10 times more financial resources than other administrations, but still borrowed heavily, including signing up to a $940 million IMF programme.
Akufo-Addo said the development had caused Ghana's public debt to balloon to 74% of GDP.
"As at the beginning of 2009, Ghana’s total debt stock was GH¢9.5 billion. By the end of 2016, the debt had ballooned to GH¢122 billion… Ghana’s debt stock now stands at 74% of GDP.
In fact, 92% of Ghana’s total debt stock was incurred in the last eight years under the previous government. The interest costs on this debt has also increased and will amount to an estimated GH¢14.1 billion in 2017," he said.
The president, however, said that he was not elected to complain, but rather to fix the problems confronting the country.
"I was not elected to complain, I was elected to get things done," he said, vowing to fix the economy and create jobs for Ghanaians.