This is one of the rare positive effects of the price rise for the French: the Banque de France should propose on Friday 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. 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.
“I can say that there will be a new increase in Livret A on February 1, it should be significant,” he said on December 20 on RMC and BFMTV. As of July 19, he estimated that “in all probability (…) the upward movement of the Livret A rate would continue on February 1 of next year.”
The expected rate between 3.2 and 3.3%
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 its current level. Of 2 %.
La rémunération de ce livret résulte de la moyenne entre, d’une part, le taux d’inflation moyen des six derniers mois et, d’autre part, la moyenne des taux interbancaires, auxquels les banques s’échangent de l’argent à short term. It brings with it the Sustainable and Solidarity Development Primer (LDDS).
However, inflation continues to evolve at high levels -it reached 5.9% in December according to the latest provisional data from INSEE, whose final figures are expected on Friday- and the rise in the reference rates of the European Central Bank (ECB ) pulls the second component of the formula up. The rate is expected at 3.2% or 3.3%, calculates Philippe Crevel, director of the Círculo de Ahorros, requested by AFP. For a saver with 10,000 euros in his Livret A, the annual remuneration would therefore be 320 or 330 euros respectively, compared to 200 euros at the current rate.
padding margin
The Livret A and the LDDS totaled more than 500,000 million 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, with a cap of 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 personal income tax and social security contributions, and the money deposited remains available at all times.
Its cost is logically significant for financial agents: remunerating 500,000 million euros at just over 3% per year means paying more than 15,000 million euros in a full year, six times more than per year at 0.5% as in 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 almost €60 billion in their accounts by the end of 2021, it could cost the BPCE group around €2 billion this year, for example, in particular. through 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 energy savings in housing. At the end of 2021, the CDC allocated 170.7 billion euros to finance social housing and urban policy, including 11.8 billion released during the year. This amount made it possible to build 85,300 social homes that year and rehabilitate 81,600. The Popular Savings Book (LEP) rate, reserved for the most modest households, will also benefit from a very significant increase. His formula, modeled on the inflation rate, could push it to 6.1%, according to Philippe Crevel.
Source: BFM TV
