After the first month of the counting period toward the January 2006 federal retirement
cost-of-living adjustment, retirees have banked 0.8 percent, following a 0.6 percentage point
increase in October in the consumer price index measure used to set that COLA (the COLAs are
determined by averaging the third quarter of one year to the next, which is why the banked
increase is higher than the monthly count). The countdown toward the 2006 COLA has no effect on
the COLA to be paid in January 2005, which will be 2.7 percent for those retired under CSRS and
2.0 percent for those retired under FERS and who are eligible for COLAs.
