Georgia’s National Bank said its total reserves declined slightly to $4.076 billion as of March 1, down from $4.102 billion a month earlier, but up from $3.438 billion a year ago.

The bank’s foreign currency reserves totalled $3.867 on March 1, down from $3.891 on February 1 this year and up from $3.241 billion on March 1, 2020.

The National Bank sold $160 million in currency auctions since the beginning of this year, in a move to support the Georgian Lari 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 GEL traded at 3.3299 to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday.