The Livret A rate will indeed increase on August 1, confirmed the Minister of the Economy Roland Lescure on June 30. And the Bank of France proposed this Wednesday July 15 morning that its interest rate increase to 1.7% (leaving the LEP, Popular Savings Account, at 2.5%). A rate confirmed by Bercy this Wednesday afternoon. But at the same time, harmonized inflation returned to 2.0% over one year in June 2026, compared to 2.4% in May, according to final data from INSEE.
The rise in Livret A is therefore lower than what we had imagined in recent months. And above all, does it really make sense for savers? Because even going back to 1.7%, it remains lower than current inflation. Thus, Fabien Keryell, the general manager of Saxo Banque France, warns against an overly optimistic reading of this announced increase.
Livret A: the increase does not compensate for inflation
“It is positive that the Livret A rate is rising in August, but with inflation above 2%, it is still not profitable”explains the CEO of Saxo Banque. The gap with the new rate of 1.7% remains unfavorable for savers, and this phenomenon should not be overlooked: “With a booklet at 1.7 %, we do not retain our purchasing power. And even if the passbook was revalued at the same level as inflation, money would not increase in value »he specifies.
For Fabien Keryell, the real question is not the level of the rate, but the use that the French make of their savings as a whole. “The Livret A is good for emergency savings, but for future savings, it’s catastrophic »says the expert. He points out that this investment was never intended to finance a long-term project. “It is not the role of a savings account to invest over an extremely long horizon, such as retirement”he insists.
The real goal of Livret A is not to earn interest. “The A booklet is going back up, it’s good news, but its main goal is not its remuneration, it is the fact that it is available, accessible at any time, and that it does not lose value »summarizes Fabien Keryell. According to him, the real problem is structural: “In France, nothing is done to invest: we have almost no funded pension, for example”.
Abundant savings in France, but misdirected
“The French do not go enough to the financial markets, whilethey save a lot »observes Fabien Keryell. Indeed, France has one of the highest savings rates, 17.9% according to INSEE. But how much is actually going to the markets? “All this savings placed in a savings account does not create surplus enrichment. The savings of the French are not productive enough, we do not have enough of this culture of investment in the financial markets, even though it is a source of better returns”. He therefore recommends diversifying your savings as soon as the investment horizon lengthens.
“If you have a long investment horizon, you have to be diversified across stocks. And if you don’t know about it, there are active funds or passive funds like ETFs, the latter offering liquidity and transparency on costs »explains Fabien Keryell. He thus cites a study by the Rexecode institute, published in May 2026, which illustrates what this lack of appetite for actions really costs the French. If we had reduced the portion invested by the French in bonds by 5%, and that in savings accounts by 3%, 8% more could have been invested in stocks. The gain would have been 344 billion euros in additional wealth over twenty years. And this rebalancing would have increased the volatility of the typical portfolio from 3.9% to 4.8%; a level that the study describes as reasonable for a long investment horizon.
