The US Postal Service will increase prices on first-class mail stamps to 66 cents from 63 cents.
The change goes into effect Sunday, raising the cost of mailing a first-class letter by about 5.4%. The Postal Service said the hike was necessary to offset a rise in operating expenses.
Surging prices have dented business across the globe over the past two years, in many cases pushing up workers’ wages and increasing the costs of doing business. Although inflation has been cooling over the past nine months — prices were up 5% last month on an annual basis — it remains above the central bank’s target of around 2%.
“These price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue,” the agency said in a statement.
It will amount to a 32% increase over the past four years. Forever stamps, however, can still be used for first-class mail no matter when or what price you purchased them for.
Domestic postcards will also increase from 48 cents to 51 cents, and international postcards from $1.45 to $1.50.
First-class mail is becoming a smaller part of the Postal Service’s business because of online communication. The number of individual letters sent each year has fallen by about half in the past decade.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, appointed during the Trump administration, has pursued sweeping changes during his tenure to try to bolster the agency’s finances. USPS expects to lose $4.5 billion in 2023.
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