LEP: good news, its rate will be maintained at 3.5% on February 1, 2025

The Popular Savings Booklet (LEP) could finally escape a sharp drop in its rate on February 1st. The Banque de France has in fact recommended setting its remuneration at 3.5%, whereas it should have fallen to 2.9%.

Excellent news for savers with modest incomes: if the reduction in the rate of the Popular Savings Book (LEP) is confirmed for February 1, it should be less harsh than expected! Indeed, in a press release published on Wednesday January 15, the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, made his rate recommendation to the Minister of the Economy and Finance Eric Lombard, and it turns out, for the LEP, higher than the remuneration resulting from its calculation formula.

As a reminder, the LEP rate is in principle mechanically equivalent to the average inflation over the six months preceding its revision, which takes place twice a year. For its revaluation on February 1, it is therefore the average of the price increase between July and December 2024 which is taken into account. But it must be added to this rule that the LEP rate must also remain 0.5% higher than that of Booklet A, also revised on February 1st. However, thanks to the latest data on inflation published this Wednesday, January 15 by INSEE, the Livret A rate falls to 2.4%.

A fourth consecutive “boost” to the LEP rate

Under the decree of January 27, 2021, the LEP rate should therefore have increased from 4% to 2.9% (2.4% + 0.5%). A rule from which the governor of the Bank of France has chosen to deviate, therefore, since he proposes a rate of 3.5% for LEP. A habit, almost, because a derogatory rate more favorable to savers had also been recommended to Bercy during the last three revisions to support the remuneration of this regulated savings account. On these three occasions, the Minister of the Economy had always aligned himself with the recommendation of the Bank of France, which therefore augurs well for a rate of 3.5% effective on February 1st.