COLA offers no reprieve from weak dollar

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COLA offers no reprieve from weak dollar
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, November 1, 2007

There’s the whammy, and then there’s the double whammy.

The whammy: The euro hit record highs against the dollar in each of the last five business days, making shopping off base even more expensive for U.S. servicemembers in countries that use the common currency.

The double whammy: The cost-of-living allowances paid to troops and civilians to offset the high cost of shopping off base won’t go up at least until the middle of November — and that’s a best-case scenario.

Money news in the United Kingdom is just as bad. There, the British pound hit a 26-year high against the dollar Tuesday and again Wednesday when it opened trading in New York at a fraction more than $2.07 a pound.

And, like in mainland Europe, neither troops’ COLA nor civilians’ post allowance will change in the majority of locations in the U.K.

There’s a good chance that troops’ COLA, which hasn’t moved up or down in Germany since Aug. 1, could go up in mid-November if the dollar stays close to its all-time lows against the euro.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49948