The postal traffic of addressed mail registered in the year 2000 a positive increase, of 59 million objects, compared with the previous year, corresponding to a growth rate of 4.8% (Fig. 1). This growth, both in absolute and relative terms, is lower than that in the previous year.
The component of the traffic, which registered the highest rate of growth, was priority mail ("blue mail") with 10.7%. In absolute terms, the regular mail was the component which most contributed to the rise in mail, with an increase of 37 million objects. This is still the most significant component, accounting for 66.7% of the total of this traffic (Fig. 2).
Figure 1
Figure 2
In overall terms, the prices of the postal service registered in the year 2000, a drop, in real terms, of 0.7%, as opposed to the previous year. The development in regular mail prices was -0.8% and that in priority mail was 0.5%. As for regular mail (Figure 3), the most significant variation in real prices was in the mail to Europe and outside Europe, with -2.6% and for mail within the EU, equivalent to 2.5%.
In terms of real prices for priority mail (Figure 4), the price variation for international mail (Europe and outside Europe) was -2.6% and that for national mail was 3.5%.
Figure 3
Figure 4
On the basis of a comparative analysis of the prices of the postal services (base national and international tariffs) practised in the EU, it may be concluded that Portugal presented in all the services analysed base tariffs lower than the average EU figures. The highest gap is at the level of national non-priority mail, commonly described as regular mail, with -36.6% (Figure 5).
Figure 5
