The yields on the Livret A and the Livret d’épargne populaire will crumble from February 1. There’s no reason to panic though: they will beat inflation quite well this year. Here is the interest that your bank will pay you on December 31 on these products,
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– A LEP with a ceiling of 10,000 euros should earn you more than 330 euros in interest in 2025.
The expected bad news has arrived. As of February 1, the interest rate on Livret A will fall from 3% to 2.4%, the Ministry of Economy and Finance made official this Wednesday, January 15. The result of the literal application of the formula for calculating the yield of the French favorite booklet, that is to say the average between annual inflation over the last six months (1.38%) and rates interbank transactions (3.41%) over the same period. Conversely, the remuneration of the Popular Savings Account (LEP) will once again benefit from a boost from the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau. The interest rate on this product reserved for households with modest incomes will in fact go go from 4% to 3.5%and this, when it should have plummeted to 2.9%, i.e. the yield on Livret A increased by half a point.
If you are one of the 57 million holders of a Booklet A or the 12 million LEP holders, this announcement is at first glance not very encouraging. But keep in mind that the reduction in your returns is directly linked to the decline in inflation excluding tobacco, which fell to 1.2% in December 2024 and to 1.8% over the whole of the past year. As price increases are expected to continue to slow down in 2025, your secure savings products will therefore continue to offer you a real interest rate (inflation deducted) in the green until the end of 2025.
Livret A, LEP, PEL: the returns on your savings accounts from February 1, 2025
208 euros of interest for a LEP at the ceiling by August 1
But how much will your savings accounts earn you this year? From January 1 to July 31, 2025, i.e. before the next revision of the Livret A rate and the THE Pthe average yield of your product is already known. It will reach 2.48% on average over this period for your Livret A and 3.57% for LEP. If, on January 1, 2025, you had placed 7,000 euros, i.e. the average outstanding amount, in your Livret A, it will therefore earn you 14.5 euros per month, or 101.5 euros over the first seven months of the year . At the ceiling of 22,950 euros, 47.5 euros of monthly interest will be capitalized on your Livret A, or nearly 333 euros by August 1, 2025.
For a LEP filled to the average outstanding amount of 6,600 euros, the interest will reach 19.6 euros per month, or 137.5 euros by the next revision of its rate. At the payment ceiling of 10,000 euros, 29.76 euros will be capitalized each month on the booklet, or 208 euros in total over the first seven months of 2025.
A Livret A rate below 2% on August 1?
And for the rest of the year? If it is still too early to predict the interest rates of Livret A and LEP which will be revised on August 1, it is already possible to say that they should fall again on this occasion. Indeed, according to INSEE, inflation could be at 1% in June 2025. And according to the governor of the Banque de France, the European Central Bank (ECB) could again reduce key rates by one point by next summer. If this scenario is confirmed, the average of interbank rates – correlated to ECB rates – over the period January-June 2025 would fall to around 2.5%.
With such indicators, the Banque de France could then recommend applying a remuneration limited to 1.8% ((1%+2.5%)/2) for Livret A from August 1, a further reduction of 0.6 points for the yield of the French darling. The – fictitious – rate of the LEP would then increase to 2.3%, but François Villeroy de Galhau and the Minister of Economy and Finance, Eric Lombard, should once again give a boost to this remuneration, by fixing it at a higher level – for example 3% – to continue to promote this savings account reserved for the most modest.
Inflation has slowed sharply in France in 2024, but tobacco prices have accelerated
If such hypotheses, very distant at the moment, come to fruition, holders of a Livret A with 7,000 euros outstanding will receive 10.5 euros per month between August 1 and December 31, or 52.5 euros of interest in total. Those who have filled this product up to the ceiling of 22,950 euros will receive 34.4 euros per month and 172 euros in additional interest over the last five months of the year. Or in total 505 euros interest over the whole of 2025. On the LEP side, with a booklet filled to the maximum, i.e. 10,000 euros, expect 25 euros capitalized per month, i.e. 125 euros in interest between August 1 and December 31st. Either at 333 euros of interest in total for the year 2025.
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