Inflation continued to drift a bit lower last month but the descent from 40-year highs remains painfully slow. Consumer prices increased 8.2% from a year earlier, down from an 8.3% rise in August and a four-decade high of 9.1% in June, as climbing food and rent costs again offset falling gasoline prices, according to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index. Economists had estimated yearly inflation would drop to 8.1%. On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged up a larger-than-expected 0.4% after a 0.1% increase in August. Click the link in our for the full report.