Figures from Royal Mail published this week also showed that expenditure dropped by 2.1% to 2.32bn and consumer DM volumes fell by 1.6% to just below 4bn items. Business DM fell 3.6% to just over 1bn.

But over the last quarter of 2006 charities, government and health sectors and building societies boosted their volumes of DM. Charities boosted their use of DM by 9.1% to 132.2m items while the government sent out 17.4m mailings, up by 6%.

Royal Mail market development manager Emily Travis said: "The charity sector has long recognised the benefits of direct mail and these figures reinforce its importance to them as a marketing tool."

Overall volumes in the fourth sector of 2006 were at 958.6m compared to 1bn in the same period last year.

How should DM printers respond to falling volumes? Email letters.printweek@haymarket.com