With a yield of 6.1%, the LEP will offer real protection against inflation, Actualité/Actu Epargne

Reserved for households with modest incomes, the Livret d’Epargne Populaire (LEP) will yield 6.1% per year from 1 February, ie 1.5 points better than 4.6% today. Unlike the Livret A and the Livret de développement durable et solidaire (LDDS) whose yield will increase to 3%, the Governor of the Banque de France proposed for the LEP not to reduce the result of the calculation formula directly derived from the inflation over the past 6 months (6.1% on average from July to December 2022, excluding tobacco).

Inflation protection

The LEP thus fully retains its role of protecting people’s savings from inflation, knowing that the ceiling of this booklet is limited to €7,700. This will still yield €469.7 in interest over one year for a booklet filled to the ceiling, compared to €354.2 today, or an additional €115.5.

This rate of 6.1% will then be revised again in August 2023 and it should stabilize or even increase to 6.3% taking into account the latest estimates from INSEE, which envisages an inflation peak of 7% in January-February 2023, before returning to around 5.5% in June.

Still potential openings

The Banque de France recorded more than 2 million LEP openings in 2022, almost three times more than in 2021. The number of holders is now approaching 8.5 million compared to less than 7 million at the start of 2022, with still a room for improvement since more than 18 million French people are eligible for it. A rate above 6% should therefore continue to convince these potential beneficiaries.

Resource ceilings

The LEP is reserved for households that do not exceed certain income ceilings established according to the composition of the household (for example €20,296 for a single person and €31,135 for a couple). It is the reference taxable income of the year preceding that of the request (or the penultimate) which is taken into account. In other words, the reference tax income of 2021 or 2022 for an opening request made in 2023. These ceilings could be revalued soon.