BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 15
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) made its first foreign exchange intervention amid the COVID-19 crisis on March 13, 2020, Trend reports via the NBG.
The NBG sold $20 million to mitigate the economic shock caused by the first wave of the coronavirus in the country.
The central bank made a total of 29 foreign exchange interventions to ease the volatility of the lari exchange rate and sold an unprecedented amount of $993 million over the past 12 months.
In more details, foreign exchange interventions of $873 million were made in 2020, while $120 million - in 2021.
According to official statistics, as of February 28, Georgia's foreign exchange reserves amounted to $4.076 billion, which was $25.5 million less than in January. Foreign exchange reserves were $638 million up year-on-year, which was related to the foreign loans attracted by the country.
The lari exchange rate was sharply depreciated in 2020 during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. On March 1, $1 was worth 2.79 lari, within two weeks the USD exchange rate first reached 2.99 lari, then the value of $1 exceeded 3.40 lari. The USD exchange rate hit a record high on March 27, 2020, when the cost of $1 totaled 3.48 lari.
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