U.S. Postal Service: Stamp prices are going up

The U.S. Postal Service has announced that stamp prices are going up for the first time in more than two years. The new prices will take effect on Jan. 22, 2012, Reuters reports.

The Postal Service is raising the price of mailing a first-class letter by one cent to 45 cents, Reuters reports. The cost to mail a postcard will go up three cents to 32 cents, letters to Canada or Mexico will rise five cents to 85 cents and letters to other locations abroad will cost seven cents more at $1.05. Prices for Express Mail and Priority Mail will stay the same, Postal Service officials said.

Postal officials expect the 1-cent increase to generate an additional $888 million in revenue, the Washington Post reports.

“The overall average price increase is small and is needed to help address our current financial crisis," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said, according to Reuters. "We continue to take actions within our control to increase revenue in other ways and to aggressively cut costs."

According to the Washington Post:

The Postal Service says it has lost about $10 billion in the fiscal year that ended last month. It is pushing Congress to enact a series of reforms that would permit it to end Saturday mail deliveries, close post offices and mail processing facilities, and raise postage rates beyond the rate of inflation.

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