Georgia's central bank said on Thursday it had spent $60 million in reserves to support the lari after a surge in demand for foreign currency, its largest such intervention since May 2021. Georgia has been mired in a political crisis over a bill on "foreign agents" passed by parliament on Tuesday, which critics say is authoritarian and Kremlin-inspired. The National Bank of Georgia said the decision to intervene was taken amid "excess demand for currency, which created additional pressure on the exchange rate of the Georgian lari".