The price of a first-class stamp for a one-ounce letter hit 44 cents this week, up from the 42-cent mark reached just a year ago. Over the long and short runs, postage costs have increased substantially faster than general prices. In the last 40 years, the cost of a stamp rose at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent, whereas inflation was only 4.5 percent a year, on average.

In the last eight years stamp prices rose at an annual average rate of 3.3 percent. Inflation over the same period was only 2.3 percent per year, on average. If USPS costs had been limited to the increase in the consumer price index since 1969, a stamp today would cost 35 cents, not 44 cents. Still, says the Associated Press:

Even so, the rate increase is unlikely to cover the ongoing losses and the possibility remains that the post office could run out of money before the end of the fiscal year.

The post office could have cited extraordinary circumstances and asked the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for larger increases, but officials worried that would only result in a greater decline in mail volume and worse losses.