The drop is logical, since it reflects the decline in inflation in recent months, the Livret A rate being determined according to the increase in prices over the last six months and the exchange rate between banks.
A loss of 35 euros
But this fall remains bad news for the 56 million French people holding a Livret A, who have deposited 7,100 euros on average in this regulated booklet. Because a drop in the rate means a drop in the amount of interest. A person who had the sum of 1,000 euros in their savings account will no longer benefit from 30 euros of interest at the end of the year, as was the case with a rate of 3%, but now 25 euros.
For an individual who had invested €7,000 there, the loss of return is 35 euros: 175 euros of interest in 2025 with a rate of 2.5%, compared to 210 euros if it had been at 3%. The big losers in history are the savers who had reached the ceiling on their Livret A, set at 22,950 euros. With the drop in the rate, they see 115 euros of interest evaporate. They will now get more than 574 euros, compared to 689 euros previously.
A further rate cut likely
And again. This scenario is only valid if the Livret A rate remains fixed at 2.5% throughout the year 2025. However, this is far from being won: this rate can be modified twice a year, February 1st and August 1st. Thus, a further decline could occur on August 1st.
A hypothesis that is all the more plausible given that the European Central Bank should further reduce its key rates, an indicator taken into account in the calculation of the Livret A. “The livret rate could then increase to 2.25%” during the summer, anticipates Philippe Crevel, director of the Cercle de l’Épargne. In such a configuration, the loss of interest would be a few dozen additional euros.
Dissaving, to encourage consumption
For Minister Lombard, even with a less profitable Livret A, “savings are not only protected, but they allow real assets to increase”. It is above all “an eminently political decision”, corrects Philippe Crevel. He recalls that the Livret A calculation formula is far from having always been applied to the letter: for 18 months for example, the rate has been frozen at 3%, whereas strict application of the calculation should have brought it above 4% in the second half of 2023.
This upcoming reduction in the rate is rather “supposed to encourage the French to save less and consume more”, believes the director of the Savings Circle. And this, while the current dynamic of households is more oriented towards prudence (the French are increasingly expanding their Livret A) than towards consumption.
Other more profitable booklets, but…
The rate of the Sustainable and Solidarity Development Booklet (LDDS), set on the same calculation as that of the Booklet A, should suffer the same fate. What remains for savers looking for more profitable assets? They can turn to the Popular Savings Booklet (LEP): its rate, currently at 4%, should decrease to 3% or 3.5%. But this regulated booklet is reserved for the most modest.
There is also life insurance in euro funds (the most dynamic promise a return greater than 3%, not guaranteed) or riskier investments (unit-linked life insurance, shares, PER, etc.). But unlike the Livret A, the latter are not exempt from income tax and/or social security contributions.