Barthélémy Philippe // Photo credit: Nicolas Guyonnet / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 6:29 a.m., March 1, 2024
Good news for the 55 million French people with a livret A. In February, inflation finally fell below 3%, to precisely 2.9%.
Which means that with its rate frozen at 3% until February 1, 2025, the Livret A will become profitable for the first time in three years.
It was a real paradox.
Livret A recorded a record collection in 2023, while it caused its holders to lose purchasing power.
And for good reason, its rate at 2.9% on average last year was far from compensating for inflation at 4.9%.
An extremely rare situation according to economist Philippe Crevel.
“You had to go back to the beginning of the 1980s, after the two oil shocks, to have such a negative real return. Since then, we have had a positive real return, not necessarily extremely significant.”
According to him, since 2022, we have moved into “a negative yield zone, despite successive increases in the Livret A rate”.
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The situation was reversed in February
Calculated at 2.9% for the month of February, inflation has finally fallen below 3%.
The Livret A rate is frozen at 3% until February 1, 2025. For the year 2024, with inflation projected at 2.5% by INSEE and the Banque de France, the real return on investment preferred by the French should therefore reach 0.5%.
Philippe Crevel took out the calculator: “For a person who has 6,500 euros in their Livret A account, which corresponds to the average outstanding balance, the net gain, once inflation is deducted, will be 32.5 euros. is not necessarily huge, but it is much better than in 2023, where there was monetary erosion.
Finally, for an A booklet filled up to the ceiling of 22,950 euros, count 688 euros in interest.
But only 115 euros, once the effect of inflation is deducted.