Islamabad, Jul 23 (IANS): Pakistan has borrowed a whopping $16 billion in foreign loans in just one year aimed to avoid default on international debt obligations and financing its imports, the Express Tribune reported on Tuesday.

The $16 billion worth of foreign loans have been obtained during fiscal year 2018-19, which included 11 months of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, showed official documents of the federal government.

According to the report, out of the $16 billion, the PTI government took $13.6 billion worth of loans - the highest ever by any government in a single year. The remaining $2.4 billion had been received in July 2018 during tenure of the caretaker setup.

The $16-billion loans in the just-ended fiscal year included disbursement of $5.5 billion by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. However, the data that the economic affairs ministry will publish this week will not show $5.5 billion as part of federal government loans, according to sources.

The government would officially disclose loan disbursements for fiscal year 2018-19 at $10.5 billion, the sources said. The remaining $5.5 billion has been booked on balance sheet of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).