Watchdog yet to decide on Deutsche Post's stamp price hike plan
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's communications watchdog played down a newspaper report that it had approved a Deutsche Post proposal to raise prices for letters, saying it had not yet made a decision.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported that the fee for a standard letter will go up to 80 euro cents from 70, which it said will be confirmed by the Bundesnetzagentur in a letter that the newspaper had seen ahead of its official delivery.
A spokesman for the regulator said a final decision has not been taken but any increase would not take place before April 1.
The Bundesnetzagentur had blocked Deutsche Post's plan to raise prices from Jan. 1 in October 2018, asking for additional information about costs Deutsche Post said were increasing.
The price of sending a letter was last increased in 2016.
Deutsche Post, which was not immediately available to comment on the newspaper report, has said that Germany's letter post is still cheap compared with other European countries while its staff costs are relatively high.
(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi and Vera Eckert, editing by Louise Heavens)
