A fanfare start for regulated savings at the start of the year. While the Livret A and the Livret de Développement Durable et Solidaire (LDDS) have been distributing a 3% return since February 1, the announcement of this rate in January boosted their collection from the first four weeks of the year.
Over this period, the two media recorded positive inflows of €11.22 billion, i.e., in one month, almost half of their net inflows recorded for the whole of 2021 (€19.11 billion). , and more than a quarter of that of 2022, a record period for regulated savings!
Never so much money deposited in a month since the financial crisis
The Livret A savings account alone garnered 9.27 billion euros more in January than in December, when 2.69 billion euros net had already been invested by households: this monthly performance is the best recorded since January 2009, at 18.31 billion euros, ” which had then been carried out at the time of the trivialization of its distribution and in the midst of the financial crisis “, observes Philippe Crevel, president of the Cercle de l’Epargne in a note released on Tuesday, February 21.
The Sustainable and Solidarity Development Booklet (LDDS) for its part recorded a net inflow of 1.95 billion euros, after 1.24 billion euros in December. “You have to go back to October – December 2012 to record higher collections. The latter had been obtained when the LDDS ceiling was doubled, which then went from 6,000 to 12,000 euros, in October 2012. “, explains Philippe Crevel.
At the end of January, the outstanding amount of these savings accounts thus reached a new all-time high at 384.7 billion euros for the Livret A, and at 136.2 billion euros for the LDDS.
Savings arbitrage carried out to the detriment of current accounts
For the specialist, the context of inflation and the rise in the yield of these supports have changed the behavior of French savers. If households had left more and more money in their current accounts in recent years, ” since July and especially September 2022 “, they favored the Livret A and the LDDS to the detriment of demand deposits, whose outstanding amount contracted by 18.9 billion euros in the 4th quarter, according to provisional data from the Banque de France. (read box).
Even if the protection is not total, since their rate remains lower than the level of inflation, ” households try [ainsi] limit the effects of inflation on their liquidity “, notes the president of the Cercle de l’Epargne.
“Faced with the rise in prices and the erosion of their purchasing power, households are not drawing on their woolen stockings, on the contrary, they are strengthening it. They prefer to reduce their consumption than to begin their precautionary savings. The fear of a future deterioration in the economic situation explains this attitude. And the debates on pensions and the threats of blocking the country are traditionally accompanied by a rise in savings “, he comments.
The “rate effect” observed in January should continue in February and March, predicts Philippe Crevel, during a traditionally buoyant quarter for regulated savings: households allocate part of the premiums collected at the end of December to this, while these are low-spend, tax-free months.
less money in checking accounts
According to the latest statistics from the Banque de France, published on Tuesday, the volume of savings placed on interest-bearing bank deposits (regulated passbooks, term accounts and ordinary passbooks) increased from €9.1bn net in the 2nd quarter of 2022 , to €24.2bn in the 3rd quarter of 2022, while at the same time, net flows in cash and sight deposits (current accounts) contracted by €2.2bn, down from €12bn in the 2nd quarter, to 9, €8bn net in the 3rd quarter.
The Banque de France’s expectations for the last quarter also reflect an acceleration of the phenomenon “in the context of the announcement of the additional increase in their yield in the first quarter of 2023”: the flows recorded on regulated savings should remain high (to €22.8 billion) while those in cash and sight deposits are expected to contract by €16.8 billion!