Inflation in the United States dropped last month to its lowest point since it first began surging more than three years ago, adding to a spate of encouraging economic news in the closing weeks of the

Economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics noted in a commentary that Friday's report on producer prices suggested the September PCE inflation index would increase by 0.2 percen

Price increases slowed in September, but the cool-down was less than economists had expected, in the latest reminder that bringing inflation back under control remained a somewhat bumpy process. A Consumer Price Index report released on Thursday showed that overall inflation was 2.