Bad news, the Livret A rate will drop on February 1st, here is its new rate

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This is bad news for savers. The Ministry of the Economy has just confirmed that the Livret A rate will be lowered to 2.4% on February 1, compared to 3% today. This news follows a proposal from the Governor of the Bank of France and also concerns other savings accounts. Let's take stock.

Overall rate reduction

Eric Lombard, the new Minister of the Economy, has therefore complied with the regulatory calculation of this booklet popular with the French by endorsing this reduction. Please note that the Sustainable and Solidarity Development Booklet (LDDS) remuneration will also fall to 2.4% from next month.

As for the rate of the popular savings account, reserved for the most modest, it goes from 4 to 3.5%. This is a small boost from the government, because it should have dropped more if we were to rely on the formula provided for in the law.

As Capital reminds us, the calculation of the remuneration of the Livret A is based on the average of the annual change in prices excluding tobacco over the past six months on the one hand, and interbank rates (€STR) on the other hand. However, the level of inflation fell last year, which explains these rate changes.

A boon for housing

While these figures are necessarily closely scrutinized by savers, they also have repercussions on the economic and social level. It should be noted that the Livret A is used to finance social housing in France.

Quoted by Le Monde, Eric Lombard is delighted in this regard: “This rate cut is good news for housing, because it will stimulate the construction of social housing, which is a priority for this government” .

The Federation of Social Housing Enterprises echoes the same sentiment: “This cut will support investment, a major issue in the context of a housing crisis without previous».

By making savings less attractive, the government also hopes to boost household consumption as part of a fairly standard macroeconomic strategy. However, nothing is guaranteed. Indeed, the French could also turn to other, more lucrative investment products. Consumption cannot be decreed and depends on the state of mind of households and their confidence in the future.

As a reminder, the outstanding amounts of Livret A and LDDS savings accounts are at historic levels and now stand at €582.3 billion. In the period from January to November 2024 alone, they increased by 17.5 billion euros again.

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