The French postal operator La Poste has announced a mail price increase of 2.8% on averagecoming into effect on 1 January 2013, 18 months after the last price increase.
La Poste said this increase will allow it to maintain a high quality of public service under theconditions which will be stipulated in the next public service contract.
According to INSEE, the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, theupcoming price rise is still below the 3% inflation rate in France.
As part of the change, priority mail stamps will rise from €0.60 to €0.63 and the ‘Green Letter’stamp price will increase one cent to €0.58.
Launched by La Poste a year ago, the Green Letter which is distributed within 48 hours isdescribed as more economical and ecological than the standard one as it avoids air transportation(except for Corsica and overseas mail). The letter was introduced to cut CO2 emissions by 30%compared to priority mail. The Green Letter responds to customers’ needs with more than 50 millionGreen Letters distributed by postmen every month, according to La Poste.
The French postal operator claimed that the stamp price increase would only have a small impacton households with less than a euro per year in additional costs. Mail now makes up a very smallpart of consumer budgets with every French household spending an average of €30 per year onpostage.
Business mail prices will rise by 1.8% which is in line with continuous mail price reduction forbig customers, La Poste said.
The rates for La Poste’s ‘Destineo Esprit Libre’ product for small and medium-sized enterpriseswill rise 1.5% to further their competitiveness in the difficult economic environment.
The company said these latest price changes are in line with its ‘price cap’ set by the FrenchRegulator of Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP) on 6 November 2012.
