The rise in the Livret A rate to 3% is producing its effects: the preferred investment of the French and the sustainable and solidarity development booklets (LDDS) together inflated by 8.17 billion euros last month, a first for a month from February. This sum is more than double the best month of February in history, in 2021.
“The February result is a logical extension of that of January and has its origins in the increase in the rate of the booklet A which took place on February 1 last”, underlines in a note Philippe Crevel, of the Cercle de l’épargne . The pay rate fell from 2% to 3% at the beginning of last month. If it remains below inflation, which now exceeds 6% in France, it largely relegates its main competitor: life insurance. The return on euro funds is estimated at an average of 2% by the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR), excluding tax.
In detail, the French have deposited 6.27 billion euros more than they withdrew in February on their savings accounts A, and 1.90 billion euros more than they did withdrew to their LDDS. In total, the cumulative outstanding of the livret A, the preferred investment of the French, and the LDDS has been evolving for several months at record levels. On February 28, it reached the tidy sum of 529.1 billion euros, unheard of.
It is also almost 20 billion euros more than on January 1. Last year, it took six months to reach the same level. The filling margin of regulated savings books is still significant: the more than 55 million passbooks A exceed on average barely a quarter of their capacity, fixed at nearly 23,000 euros.
And some 678 billion euros sleep on current accounts in France, according to the latest figures from the Banque de France. “The rise to 3% of the Livret A rate against a background of inflation encourages households to reduce their liquidity in their current accounts”, specifies Mr. Crevel. “The livret A appears, for a large majority of French people, as the best investment to protect themselves from rising prices,” he continues.
The latest data from the Banque de France goes in this direction: in the month of January alone, 5.5 billion euros were taken out of current accounts.
The money deposited in the livret A and the LDDS, capped respectively at 22,950 euros and 12,000 euros excluding capitalized interest, is guaranteed by the State, exempt from taxes and social security contributions. Withdrawals are totally free, free of charge and possible at any time.
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. Livret A and LDDS had already swelled by 40 billion euros in outstandings last year, driven by large deposits and interest paid at the end of the year.
The rate of remuneration of the livret A, the calculation of which depends among other things on inflation, had already experienced two significant increases in 2022: from its floor of 0.5% to 1% on February 1, 2022, then to 2% on February 1, 2022. august.
