Amazon raises the price of its Prime services in the US

In US, Amazon is raising its prime services price after reporting record sales in the profit.
The e-commerce giant said it was hiking the price by 17% to $139 for an annual membership.
The firm, which cited increased wage and shipping costs, said it had no announcements to make about other countries “at this time”.
It is the first increase since 2018 for Prime, which gives subscribers access to benefits like faster shipping.
More than 200 million people globally pay for the service, many of them in the US.
Amazon shares soared almost 15% in after-hours trade on the news, which accompanied the release of its end of 2021 performance.
Amazon said those challenges had hurt – and were likely to continue this year. It forecast sales growth of 3%-8% in the first three months of 2022.
“As expected over the holidays, we saw higher costs driven by labour supply shortages and inflationary pressures, and these issues persisted into the first quarter due to Omicron,” chief executive Andy Jassy said.
“Despite these short-term challenges, we continue to feel optimistic and excited about the business as we emerge from the pandemic.”