An increase which should be “significant”, according to François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France. This rate is, in part, calculated on the basis of inflation.
Good news for French savers. “There will be a further increase in A bookletat 1er February, she should be sensitive“, declared this Tuesday on BFM TV, François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Banque de France.
A savings product held by a majority of French people, the Livret A has its rate calculated automatically twice a year: on August 1 and February 1. The rate partly depends on the level of inflation, interbank rates, at which banks exchange short-term money, but also on a possible boost. It is up to the Governor of the Banque de France to send a proposal upstream to the Minister of Economy and Finance who chooses whether or not to ratify it. By August 1 of this year, the rate had doubled to 2%. An increase which had notably generated several months of record collection. In September, collection had reached nearly 2.7 billion euros. Unheard of for a September month since 2009.
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An even greater increase on LEP
But the Governor of the Banque de France also put the spotlight on the Livret d’Epargne Populaire by announcing a “even bigger increaseon this project before adding that “it was the most attractive product for savers“. As of August 1, its rate had risen from 2.2% to 4.6%.
But too few eligible people hold them. If its opening procedures have been simplified since last year, only 37% of the 18.6 million French people fulfilling the conditions to have a LEP actually have one, according to the Banque de France. This product is reserved for people with incomes not exceeding certain ceilings (20,297 euros per year for example for a single person).
Read alsoGDP growth is expected to slow to 0.3% in 2023, Banque de France predicts
And while GDP growth should slow to 0.3% in 2023, according to the latest forecasts from the Banque de France, its governor wanted to be reassuring all the same about the future economic outlook by hammering that: “France should probably escape recession. If there were to be a recession, it would be temporary and limited“.