The postal service said profits for the period stood at £184 million, while last year's total stood at £177 million.
Royal Mail said overall group revenues were down due to the 'continuing decline in mail volumes and economic recession which, along with intensifying competition, had an impact on all of the group's businesses'.
The company also said it had paid more than £300 million into its pension fund over the period, saying 'despite the resilient profit performance, group cashflow continues to be negative with an outflow of £434 million during the six months, largely driven by continuing investment and the cost of voluntary redundancies'.
The postal service added: 'During the period we also made a cash payment of more than £300m into the pension fund. The pension fund deficit is currently being revalued with the historic deficit widely expected to be at least £10 billion compared with £3.4 billion at the last valuation three years ago.'
Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail Group said: 'Traditional volumes continue to fall in the UK and around the world as electronic communications continues its inexorable growth: for example the Dutch postal operator TNT has said that volumes in the Netherlands will fall by seven to nine per cent in 2010 while in some countries such as the US the decline is as steep as 13 per cent.
'It is too early to assess the impact of the Communication Workers Union's (CWU) recent strike action but we are grateful to all those postmen and women who chose to continue working through the strikes and for the huge efforts made by our managers to help keep the mail moving.'
Royal Mail said overall group revenues were down due to the 'continuing decline in mail volumes and economic recession which, along with intensifying competition, had an impact on all of the group's businesses'.
The company also said it had paid more than £300 million into its pension fund over the period, saying 'despite the resilient profit performance, group cashflow continues to be negative with an outflow of £434 million during the six months, largely driven by continuing investment and the cost of voluntary redundancies'.
The postal service added: 'During the period we also made a cash payment of more than £300m into the pension fund. The pension fund deficit is currently being revalued with the historic deficit widely expected to be at least £10 billion compared with £3.4 billion at the last valuation three years ago.'
Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail Group said: 'Traditional volumes continue to fall in the UK and around the world as electronic communications continues its inexorable growth: for example the Dutch postal operator TNT has said that volumes in the Netherlands will fall by seven to nine per cent in 2010 while in some countries such as the US the decline is as steep as 13 per cent.
'It is too early to assess the impact of the Communication Workers Union's (CWU) recent strike action but we are grateful to all those postmen and women who chose to continue working through the strikes and for the huge efforts made by our managers to help keep the mail moving.'
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