USPS shows profit during holidays

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

A strong holiday shipping season and a couple of favorable economic situations temporarily turned around the financial fortunes of the Postal Service, officials said Tuesday.

The post office reported a $307 million profit between October and December of 2015, compared with a $754 million loss the previous year.

That was in part because increases in holiday shipping during the first quarter of the fiscal year, which begins in October.

But postal officials warned that without favorable interest-rate changes and a postal surcharge that will expire in April, they would have had a net loss of approximately $700 million in the first quarter.