Since February 1, the Livret A rate has fallen to 1.5%, its lowest since 2021. A brutal fall, since it was still at 3% in January 2025. But the war in the Middle East has just reshuffled the cards. Energy prices (gas, electricity, diesel, gasoline, etc.) jumped 7.3% year-on-year in March. Overall inflation thus increased to 1.7%, compared to only 0.9% in February. A jump of almost a point in a month. If this is not very good news for households who risk having a tighter budget, it is the Livret A which should benefit…
Indeed, to ensure that the Livret A rate always reflects economic reality, the Banque de France revises it twice a year (in February and August), with a precise formula. It takes the average of inflation excluding tobacco over the last six months, to which it adds the average of the European interbank rate (the €STR), then divides everything by two. The result is rounded to the nearest tenth, with a floor of 0.5%. It is the governor of the Banque de France who makes the recommendation, and the Minister of the Economy who decides. For the August revision, the formula will apply to data from January to June 2026.
Booklet A: what the figures show today
Until February 28, inflation remained very low: 0.3% in January, 0.9% in February. Experts anticipated a revision towards 1.60% in August, more symbolic than anything else. But with the increase in March to 1.7%, the half-year average has risen significantly. If inflation remains high in April, May and June (which is likely as long as the conflict keeps oil high), the January-June average could exceed 1.3%. For its part, the European interbank reference rate is currently around 2%, driven by ECB policy.
So, if inflation remains above 1.7%by averaging with the rates, the Livret A could be revalued to 1.7 instead of the estimate of 1.6%. What would that change? Concretely, for a full Livret A at 22,950 euros at 1.7% interest, this represents 390.15 euros annual interest instead of 344.25 euros today. Or 46 euros more over the year.
Is an earlier review possible?
Few people know it, but in addition to February and August, the regulations provide two exceptional review windows in the year: a calculation on April 15 for an application on May 1, and a calculation on October 15 for an application on November 1. These revisions remain rare and have only been used a handful of times since 2008, but can be applied in the event of a significant difference between the current rate and the calculated theoretical rate.
For now, the conditions are not all met. It is the government which remains in control of the decision, and an exceptional upward revision of only 0.1 or 0.2 points is politically unlikely: the gain for the saver would be too small to justify the signal sent to the markets. But if inflation continues to rise quickly, the question of an early revision to May 1 may arise.
