The U.S. Postal Service’s deficit grew by nearly $200 million, to $476.3 million, between April 20 and May 17, according to a financial report released Friday.
It attributed the $192.1 million increase in the deficit to declines in both mail volume and revenue in the ninth of its 13 four-week accounting periods.
During that period, the report notes, mail volume dropped 2.5% to 47.1 billion pieces from 48.3 billion pieces leading to a 2.4% decline in revenue, to $14.6 billion from $14.9 billion a year ago.
According to that report total mail volume for the year so far is down 3.8% to 142.5 billion pieces from 148.2 billion pieces and revenue is down 1.4% to $44.4 billion from $45 billion.
During the ninth accounting period, the largest decline in both volume and revenue was posted by international mail. Volume dropped by 22.6% to 193.9 million pieces from 250.6 million pieces a year ago and revenue declined by 10.7% to $360.6 million from $403.6 million.
Express mail volume dropped by 9.2% during that period to 15.3 million pieces from 16.9 million pieces a year earlier, resulting in an 8.2% drop in revenue, to $222.4 million from $242.3 million a year earlier.
At the same time package mail dropped by 9.2% to 220.2 million pieces from 242.5 million pieces as revenue declined by 6.4% to $429.2 million from $458.6 million a year earlier.
While the Priority Mail volume dropped by 8.5% to 241.3 million pieces from 263.8 million pieces and revenue declined by 7.6% to $1 billion from $1.1 billion a year earlier, periodicals mail volume declined by 6.4% to 2.2 billion pieces from 2.4 billion pieces resulting in a 7.2% drop in revenue to $508.4 million from $548 million a year earlier.
During that four-week period there was a 3.5% drop in Standard (advertising) Mail, to 20.3 billion pieces from 21 billion pieces a year earlier with a 2.7% decline in revenue, $3.6 billion from $3.7 billion a year earlier.
Although first class mail volume dropped by 1% during the four-week period to 23.6 billion pieces from 23.9 billion pieces a year earlier, first class mail revenue was basically static, down just 0.4% to $8.3 billion.
The volume of other mail, which includes free and reduced-rate mail increased by 3.8% during the period to 113.5 million pieces from 109.3 million pieces a year earlier. But the revenue from that mail rose 51.1% to $451,000 from $298,000, the result of government subsidy for that type of mail.
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