US Postal Service to Increase Stamp Prices in 2012

(NewsCore) - WASHINGTON -- The US Postal Service (USPS) announced Tuesday it will increase postal stamp prices by one cent, starting in 2012.

The cost of a first-class stamp will rise to 45 cents starting Jan. 22, marking the cash-strapped agency's first price hike since May 2009.

The cost of sending magazines, standard mail and some package services will also increase, USPS said, but prices for Express Mail and Priority Mail will remain the same.

The hikes are expected to generate an additional $888 million in revenue, postal officials told The Washington Post.

The US Postal Service lost $8 billion in fiscal year 2010.

Other increases set to take effect include a three-cent increase in postcard postage, to 32 cents, and postage for international mail, which will rise by five cents to 85 cents for mail to Mexico and Canada and by seven cents, to $1.05, to other countries.

Postal service price increases cannot, by law, exceed the rate of inflation, which, according to the most recent Consumer Price Index reading, is 2.1 percent. The current hikes do not violate the law.