Georgia’s National Bank said its total reserves declined to $3.873 billion as of August 1, down from $3.918 billion a month earlier, but rose from $3.840 billion a year ago.

The bank’s foreign currency reserves totalled $3.667 on August 1, down from $3.712 on July 1 this year and up from $3.644 billion on August 1, 2020.

The National Bank sold $242.9 million in currency auctions since the beginning of this year, in a move to support the Georgian lari currency. Last year the bank sold $873.2 million on the market as lari had been depreciating throughout the year to 3.2766 to the U.S. dollar on December 31, 2020, from 2.8661 on January 1, 2020.

The Georgian lari traded at 3.0993 to the U.S. dollar on Friday.