Stamp prices likely will increase in 2008, the chairman of the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors said Thursday.

Jim Miller said when the Postal Regulatory Commission recommends a rate increase — which he said probably will happen in “the next few months” — it will be capped at the rate of inflation. Congress passed a law in 2006 that established a more predictable, inflation-based system of postage rate increases. Full story from Federal Times

From USPS Press Release

Fiscal Year 2007 Results

The Postal Service also announced its financial results for fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30. The Postal Service concluded the fiscal year with a $5.1 billion net loss, attributable to mandatory funding requirements in the Postal Act of 2006 (see chart). The year-end loss is about $300 million less than projected earlier in the year.

“It’s important to note that we not only achieved our plan, which had to be adjusted to reflect the new law, but we overcame a slow start and did better than our mid-year projection,” said Potter. Without the financial impact of the law, the Postal Service would have ended the year with net income of $1.6 billion.

Total revenue in FY 2007 was $74.9 billion and expenses totaled approximately $80 billion. Mail volume was 212 billion pieces.

The Postal Service recorded an eighth consecutive year of productivity growth in FY 2007. Total Factor Productivity, which measures the relationship between workload and resource usage, was up 1.7 percent over FY 2006. Productivity was aided by a reduction of 36 million work hours, which is equivalent to $1.2 billion.