The French put their money aside.

The Caisse des Dépôts said Wednesday that the collection of Livret A had broken a record for the month of March, with 2.8 billion euros.

By way of comparison, in March 2020, the Livret A had a net collection of 2.71 billion, boosted by the first confinement introduced in the middle of the month.

The month of February had already broken all savings records for this period with 2.86 billion euros.

"In a context still marked by health restrictions, households are still in" forced savings "mode which benefits the Livret A", commented in a note Philippe Crevel, director of the Cercle de l'Epargne.

"Save as a precaution"

“Moreover, as the INSEE surveys underline, the French believe that it is appropriate to save as a precaution given the health and economic uncertainties,” he added.

Considered a safe-haven investment, the Livret A, which nevertheless guarantees a historically low interest rate of 0.5% per year, had been a historic success in 2020, with inflows almost twice as high as normal, at more than of 26 billion euros, in the context of economic and health uncertainties linked to Covid-19.

An increase of around 10% over one year

For its part, the Livret de développement durable et solidaire (LDDS) collected 870 million euros net in March, slightly less than the 1.12 billion euros recorded a year ago.

The Livret A mainly finances social housing, while the LDDS is dedicated to the social and solidarity economy as well as to energy savings in housing.

Thus, the inflows recorded by the Livret A and the LDDS together amounted in March to almost 3.7 billion euros.

And over the January-March period, this collection reached nearly 14.63 billion.

At the end of March, 462.9 billion euros were placed in total on the two books, an increase of about 10% over one year.

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