The Postal Service expects to end this fiscal year $4.2 billion in the black, allowing it to pay down a substantial amount of debt.
Chief Financial Officer Richard Strasser said the financial plan is to reduce debt by $3.8b this year to $7.2b.
In addition, the agency expects a $2.1b net income for the 2004 fiscal year, which begins in October, allowing further reduction in debt, Strasser told the agency’s Board of Governors.
Read MoreKuwait and the interim ruling council in Iraq have agreed that Kuwait plays the part of the third party in postal exchange between Iraq and the rest of the world.
Hamid Khaja, undersecretary at the Ministry of Communications, told Kuna that the Universal Postal Union recently circulated a bulletin in which it announced the resumption of postal exchanges between Iraq and the rest of the world via Kuwait after a long halt due to the latest developments.
The union said that Kuwait will handle regular letters from Iraq, but not registered or express mail or parcels. It did not elaborate.
Read MoreThe Communications Workers Union (CWU) has called for the Trade and Industry Select committee to open an investigation into the true financial situation at Royal Mail but added it is prepared to talk to management ahead of a planned strike on pay.
CWU general secretary David Ward said his members believed Royal Mail, which owns the Post Office, is exaggerating the seriousness of the company’s financial position.
“The Post Office’s financial position is not as bad as they are making out,” he told a news conference at the Trades Union Congress annual conference here.
Ward challenged the Royal Mail claims that 16,000 staff had left the business when the company’s accounts for the two years to March 31 showed only 2,000 redundancies.
Read MoreDeutsche Post, the German postal operator, is gaining ground in the UK postal market after Postcomm, the industry regulator, said it was considering giving the company a long-term mail licence.
The news added to the troubles of Royal Mail, which is trying to defend its position as the provider of a universal postal service in the face of increasing competition and industrial unrest.
Postcomm has begun a 30-day consultation on whether to issue Deutsche Post with a seven-year licence to offer various business post services, including bulk mail and document exchange. The company already has a short-term licence to offer these services, which will lapse if the long-term licence is given.
Read MoreEuropean post offices axe thousands
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