The new year is approaching, and with it, at least one bad news: the remuneration of your favorite savings accounts is about to suffer a new drop. A forecast confirmed with the publication, this Friday, December 12, of the final level of inflation for November 2025. According to INSEE, the progression of consumer prices excluding tobacco remained at a low level, recording +0.9% over one year, a result identical to that of the previous month.
However, the new Livret A rate, which will be formalized within a month, in mid-January, results from the application of a formula integrating the average inflation for the semester (here, from July to December 2025) and the average interbank rates for the same period. By retaining the current inflation average, which stands at 0.93% between July and November, and the stable interbank rates around 1.93%, the rigorous application of the rule leads to a theoretical rate of 1.43%. This mechanism implies that the remuneration of Livret A should slide from 1.7% to 1.5% (using the usual rounding to the next ten points). The Sustainable and Solidarity Development Booklet (LDDS) would see its remuneration – always identical to that of the Booklet A – follow the same trajectory.
A LEP paid at only 1% on February 1?
For the Popular Savings Booklet (LEP), reserved for low-income households, the situation is even more alarming if we stick to the formula alone. His remuneration being strictly indexed to the average of half-yearly inflation, a rate of 0.93% would lead to a theoretical return on the LEP of only 1% on February 1, after rounding, compared to 2.7% since last August 1. Fortunately, the approximately 12 million holders of this booklet can hope that this will not be the case.
Indeed, the regulations require that the LEP rate must be higher than that of the Livret A by at least 0.5 points. If the Livret A falls to 1.5%, this regulatory minimum guarantees a floor rate for the LEP at 2%. Secondly, the Minister of the Economy, on the advice of the Banque de France, retains the prerogative to deviate from mathematical formulas to grant an additional “boost”. Faced with the abrupt fall in rates, this prerogative was used during the last four revisions of the LEP rate.
