For the Popular Savings Booklet (LEP), the year 2024 began as 2023 ended: under the sign of collection. In January, this income-tested product earned 1.94 billion euros (withdrawals, less deposits), according to figures from the Caisse des Dépôts.
” The announcement [le 15 janvier par le ministre de l’économie, Bruno Le Maire] of the drop in the rate had no notable impact », notes Philippe Crevel, the founder of the Savings Circle. LEP remuneration went from 6% to 5% on 1er February (net of income tax and social security contributions), for at least six months, with the next rate review scheduled for 1er august.
In 2023, the LEP had posted a record net collection, at 20.67 billion euros, after around 8 billion in 2022 and a long series of negative collections in previous years. At the end of January 2024, the outstanding amount of this booklet reached 73.8 billion.
A ceiling of 10,000 euros
“Moderate-income households have thus continued to save despite inflation. The deterioration of the economic situation certainly plays in favor of maintaining a savings effort among households in the first two quintiles which are those eligible for the LEP”comments Mr. Crevel, adding that “households in the first quintile [les 20 % les moins aisés] were relatively preserved by the decline in purchasing power”.
If the meteoric rise in the LEP rate has undoubtedly played a role over the last two years – this booklet was only remunerated at 1% in January 2022 – the increased communication on this investment as well as the increase in its payment ceiling of 7 700 euros to 10,000 euros in October 2023 also explains this success.
The number of LEP holders has also skyrocketed: it went from 6.9 million at the end of 2021 to 10.7 million in November 2023, according to the Banque de France, which aims to reach 12.5 million by mid-2021. 2024. In total, nearly 19 million individuals are eligible.
To be so, it is necessary, for example, for a couple with two children (three tax shares), to have a reference tax income not exceeding 46,367 euros. It’s 22,419 euros for a single person (one share).
For its part, the Livret A, paid at 3%, posted a net collection of 2.27 billion euros in January, to which are added the 980 million from the Sustainable and Solidarity Development Livret, the LDDS. A level significantly lower, certainly, than that of January 2023 (almost 10 billion had then been collected in one month by the Livret A alone, in connection, in particular, with the announcement of the increase in the rate from 2% to 3%) , but which remains high. Total amount of sums placed in the Livret A and the LDDS at the end of January 2024: 568.1 billion euros.
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