French operator La Poste is to increase its rates from the 1st January. Letter mail is set to go up by an average of 4.7%.

According to a statement La Poste said that the rate increases are due to the “accelerated drop in letter mail volumes”.

Non-priority ‘Lettre Verte’ letters are set to increase from €0.80 to €0.88 and priority stamps will go up to €1.05.

La Poste added that: “In order to promote the use of the mail channel by companies, rates for business mail will increase by 2.5% and those for direct marketing by 1.5%.”

According to the French postal operator it has upgraded its services.

“From now on,” said La Poste, “customers can track the distribution of all mail.

“Since 2018, private customers can affix a « tracking » sticker to all letters. This new service will enable customers to check the status of the routing and delivery of mail bearing the sticker. Its rate will remain unchanged at €0.40.”

La Poste added that – “to make international shipments easier for individuals” – it is merging the geographic zones of “Union Européenne” and “Reste du Monde” into a single one called “International”. The rate for a Lettre Internationale weighing from 0 to 20g will be €1.30.

As a whole, rates for domestic parcels sent by individuals will increase by 1.4%, which La Poste said “represented a moderate increase, comparable to the one of 2018”.