by This week, Swiss Post announced it would increase the cost of sending letters and parcels from the beginning of 2024. © Swiss PostAt the beginning of 2024, nearly everything is set to rise in price as the Swiss VAT rate jumps from 7.7% to 8%. In addition, more and more companies are joining the party, pushing up their prices. From the beginning of 2024, A and B class letters will cost 10 cents more to post, and parcels will cost a further CHF 1.50. These costs will find their way into the overall cost of many products bought online. Swiss Post said that the price rises are aimed at compensating for a falling volume of letters and less over the counter business at its branches. In addition, it said it is facing higher energy, transport, material and wage costs and was only
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This week, Swiss Post announced it would increase the cost of sending letters and parcels from the beginning of 2024.
At the beginning of 2024, nearly everything is set to rise in price as the Swiss VAT rate jumps from 7.7% to 8%. In addition, more and more companies are joining the party, pushing up their prices.
From the beginning of 2024, A and B class letters will cost 10 cents more to post, and parcels will cost a further CHF 1.50. These costs will find their way into the overall cost of many products bought online.
Swiss Post said that the price rises are aimed at compensating for a falling volume of letters and less over the counter business at its branches. In addition, it said it is facing higher energy, transport, material and wage costs and was only passing on some of these rising operating charges to consumers.
Ahead of their announcement, the new prices were discussed with Switzerland’s price watchdog. According to SRF, the watchdog was able to negotiate the rises down. The postal provider wanted to lift the price of an A class letter from CHF 1.10 to CH 1.40 instead of the CHF 1.20 agreed with the price regulator. And B class letters will rise from CHF 0.90 to CHF 1.00 instead of CHF 1.10 as initially proposed.
At the same time, the price watchdog acknowledged the challenges facing Swiss Post. Costs are increasing and letter volumes are declining.
The new prices will apply for a period of two years.
Swiss Post hiked its prices in 2022, after not changing them for 18 years.
According to a 2022 price comparison by Deutsche Post, Swiss letter prices are currently below the European average (1.25 Euros). At the current exchange rate, by 2024 an A class letter will remain just below this average at 1.23 Euros.
More on this:
SRF article (in German)
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