LEP: the drop in its rate confirmed on February 1, 2025

The Popular Savings Booklet (LEP), currently paid at 4%, will decrease on February 1st. The rate of this booklet reserved for modest savers is indeed correlated with the level of inflation, which will decline sharply in the second half of 2024.

The prospect of a reduction in the LEP rate is now certain. According to provisional data published this Tuesday, January 7 by INSEE, inflation stood at 1.3% in December 2024continuing the slowing trend that began last summer. Good news for the purchasing power of households, but less good for holders of the Popular Savings Account (LEP), the rate of which is directly linked to price changes. On the occasion of the next revision of its rate, the February 1, 2025the yield of LEP will therefore once again fall.

The LEP rate calculated strictly at 1.4%

The LEP rate is in fact recalculated every February 1 and August 1, based on the average inflation excluding tobacco over the six months preceding the revision. For the next deadline, only the inflation for the month of December was missing to know this average: between July and December 2024, it stands at 1.37% between July and December 2024. By applying the strict rule, the LEP rate should therefore be lowered to 1.4%a drop of more than 2 points compared to its current rate of 4%. This decline would mark a return to levels of remuneration not seen for several years: we must go back to January 2022 to find a rate lower than 2% (1% at the time, between February 1, 2020 and January 31, 2022). However, LEP holders can be reassured: a mechanism prevents such a sudden drop in its rate.

Indeed, since a decree of January 27, 2021, the LEP rate can never be lower than that of the Livret A increased by 0.5 points. However, with a Livret A expected at 2.5% on February 1, 2025, the minimum LEP rate would therefore be maintained at 3%. In addition to this safeguard, intervention by the Banque de France and the Ministry of the Economy could further limit the drop in the LEP rate. During the last revisions, the public authorities had in fact chosen to deviate from the calculation formula to support the remuneration of this regulated savings account. The Banque de France could thus propose setting the LEP rate beyond the expected 3%, for example at 3.5%. Response shortly during the final announcement of the rate, mid-January 2025.