The Livret A rate expected at more than 3% on February 1, a level more reached since 2009

This is one of the rare positive effects of the rise in prices for the French.

The Banque de France should propose Friday, January 13 an increase in the rate of the Livret A, whose formula depends on the level of inflation, to more than 3% in February, a level more seen since 2009.

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Central actor of the subject since in charge of the famous calculation, the governor of the institution François Villeroy de Galhau prepared the ground several times during these last months.

“

,” he said on December 20 on RMC / BFM TV.

As of July 19, he estimated that "

".

The most common savings account rate in France, which started last year at a low of 0.5%, doubled for the first time on February 1, 2021 and then again on August 1, to reach the level current 2%.

The remuneration of this booklet results from the average between, on the one hand, the average inflation rate of the last six months and, on the other hand, the average of the interbank rates, at which the banks exchange money at short term.

It brings with it that of the Sustainable and Solidarity Development Booklet (LDDS).

However, inflation is still evolving at high levels - it reached 5.9% in December at the last provisional score from INSEE, the final figures being expected on Friday - and the increase in the key rates of the European Central Bank (ECB ) drives the second component of the formula up.

The rate is expected at 3.2% or 3.3%, calculates Philippe Crevel, director of the Circle of Savings, requested by AFP.

For a saver with 10,000 euros on his Livret A, the full-year remuneration would therefore be 320 or 330 euros respectively, compared to 200 euros at the current rate.

Fill margin

The Livret A and the LDDS totaled more than 500 billion euros in assets at the end of November, according to the latest data made public by the Caisse des dépôts (CDC).

The margin is large: the more than 55 million Livret A, capped at 22,950 euros, were only filled to a quarter of their capacity at the end of 2021, according to the Banque de France.

These investments have everything to please: they offer a guaranteed interest rate, are exempt from income tax and social security contributions and the money deposited remains available at all times.

Their cost is logically significant for financial players: remunerating 500 billion euros at just over 3% per year means paying more than 15 billion euros in a full year, six times more than a year at 0 .5% like 2021.

This invoice will be seen in the accounts of the Caisse de dépôts, which centralizes part of this sum.

It will also appear in the accounts of banks with a historically high market share for this product: with nearly 60 billion in its accounts at the end of 2021, it could cost the BPCE group around 2 billion euros this year, for example, notably via its Caisses d'Épargne.

Managed jointly by the CDC and the banking networks, the Livret A is mainly used to finance social housing, while the LDDS is dedicated to the social and solidarity economy as well as to energy savings in housing.

At the end of 2021, 170.7 billion euros were allocated by the CDC to the financing of social housing and urban policy, including 11.8 billion released during the year.

This sum made it possible to build 85,300 social housing units that year and to renovate 81,600.

Read also“There will be a further increase in the Livret A account on February 1”, according to the Governor of the Banque de France

The People's Savings Book (LEP) rate, reserved for the most modest households, will also benefit from a very significant increase.

Its formula, modeled on the inflation rate, could propel it to 6.1%, according to Philippe Crevel.