Good news for savers.
The Livret A rate should drop from 2% to 3% on February 1, the Banque de France announced on Friday.
An unprecedented level since 2009, even if it remains significantly lower than inflation, which stood at 5.2% on average in 2022 over one year according to INSEE.
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This announcement follows rate calculations by the Banque de France, which takes into account inflation and interbank rates, at which banks exchange short-term money.
This is the third increase in the rate of the preferred placement of the French in the space of a year.
At its lowest level of 0.5% at the start of 2022, it had doubled for the first time on February 1, 2022 and then again on August 1, to reach 2%.
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The increase announced on Friday is slightly lower than expected.
Inflation and the increase in the key rates of the European Central Bank (ECB) indeed suggested that the rate would be raised to 3.2% or 3.3%, according to Philippe Crevel, director of Cercle de l'épargne, interviewed by AFP.
The Banque de France also confirms that its rate could have been higher: "The application of the formula would result in a rate of 3.3% for the Livret A", she said in a press release.
But, she specifies, the rate of the booklet A "is a very important element of the cost of financing of the French economy, including mortgages and business loans".
Increasing it too strongly “would be very unfavorable to this key sector for our social cohesion and our economic activity”.
In addition, “It is desirable that the rate movements of the livret A remain progressive rather than too volatile, and this on the rise as a day potentially on the decline”, explains the institution.
LEP rate raised to 6.1%
Nevertheless, the Governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau, had warned before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that his recommendation "
should take into account in its few possibilities of adjustment the good balance between the fair remuneration of the popular savings and the preservation of a reasonable cost of financing our economy, including social housing in particular
".
In fact, the approximately 500 billion euros deposited by the French in the livret A and the livret de développement durable et solidaire (LDDS), most of which is centralized by the Caisse des dépôts (CDC), are intended to finance the social housing, the social and solidarity economy or even energy savings in housing.
Similarly, the rate of the Sustainable and Solidarity Development Booklet should follow the same path, being aligned with the rate of the Livret A. The People's Savings Booklet (LEP), reserved for the most modest households, will also benefit from a very significant revaluation on February 1.
It will go from 4.6% to 6.1%.
Heard by the finance committee of the National Assembly on Tuesday, the director general of the Caisse des dépôts Éric Lombard encouraged eligible households to use it.
“
I take this opportunity to launch an appeal: there are 7 million people who could have an LEP and who have not opened
it,” he said.
