Standard letters in Germany remain fairly low-priced compared to other European countries,according to the latest letter price survey for 2011.
Compared to their European neighbours, Deutsche Post mail customers profit from continuously lowprices for standard letters, as shown in the new edition of the European letter price survey thatanalysed standard letter prices in 29 countries.
In a purely nominal comparison, the German letter price of 55 Euro cents exactly matches theEuropean average. When considering the macroeconomic factors such as labour costs and purchasingpower, however, the postage rate for a domestic letter in Germany ranks seventh in terms ofaffordability.
In order to obtain a meaningful and objective comparison, the study, among other things, alsoexamines prices taking inflation into account. The background is that a nominally unchanged pricedecreases each year in real terms by the rate of inflation.
The survey reveals that the actual price for sending a standard letter nowhere sunk as much asin Germany except for Italy and Estonia. The price reduction thus amounts to nearly 17% whenconsidering the inflation between 2000 and 2010. During the same period of time, the price for anormal standard letter in other countries reviewed more than doubled with an average increase of51%.
The price for Deutsche Post’s cross-border European letter product ranks with 75 cents wellbelow the European average of 86 cents.
The last price increase for a standard letter in Germany occurred 14 years ago. In 2003, it wasreduced to 55 cents which is still effective today, Deutsche Post added.
