The cost of postage in New Zealand will increase next month.

From July 1, everyday New Zealanders can expect the price of sending a standard letter to increase from $1.70 to $2 (incl GST), while bulk mail customers can expect to see price increases of about 30 per cent.

NZ Post Mail general manager Matt Geor says there will not be any changes to the mail service - for example, delivery frequency, at this time.

'In 2020 the Government committed to providing $130 million over three years to NZ Post as part of a mail Services Contract to cover projected financial losses from mail,” says Matt in a statement on the NZ Post website.

'This allowed us to continue to provide nationwide coverage for mail delivery at current service levels and with price increases lower than what they otherwise would have needed to be.”

This funding will be fully utilised by June 30.

'We have continued to streamline our mail business, including amalgamating a number of mail delivery branches and announcing the closure of our Manawatū mail processing centre.

'Mail volumes have continued to decline. Our world has changed dramatically, with online communications increasingly taking the place of letters. Twenty years ago, we delivered more than one billion mail items annually, which has been rapidly decreasing year on year – at the moment we deliver about 230 million and this is continuing to drop.

'This is not unique to New Zealand, mail decline is happening across the world as more people communicate online.”

Matt says as a result, NZ Post continues to move toward more commercially sustainable prices for mail.

"Bulk mail customers can expect to see price increases of about 30 per cent from July 1 2023, and we are communicating directly with these customers.

"Everyday New Zealanders can expect the price of sending a standard letter to increase from $1.70 to $2.00 (incl GST) on 1 July 2023.

"There will not be any changes to the mail service (e.g. delivery frequency) at this time.”