COLA Count Up to 1.5 Percent

Through five months of the count to the January 2004 federal retiree cost-of-living adjustment, retirees have accumulated 1.5 percent, following an increase in February of 0.8 percent in the inflation index used to set the COLA. The accumulated amount already is above the amount, 1.4 percent, that retirees received in January 2003. The counting period for that COLA covered a period of low inflation, including several months in which the inflation index dropped.