Georgia’s National Bank said its total reserves declined to $3.918 billion as of July 1, down from $4.154 billion a month earlier, but rose from $3.616 billion a year ago.

The bank’s foreign currency reserves totalled $3.712 on July 1, down from $3.946 on June 1 this year and up from $3.425 billion on July 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 3.15 to the U.S. dollar on Friday.