The Federal Reserve Board chooses to exclude food and fuel from its inflation index but does give housing a big weighting.

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The index, based on diesel fuel purchases by thousands of truckers around the country, fell roughly 1% in September, equivalent to a 10% annual contraction.

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The Index also showed that although fuel-cell technologies remained the hottest of the hot spots in cleantech IP development, solar technologies received more attention than wind power in terms of overall patenting activity in 2010.

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That helped fuel a nearly 13% gain in the MSCI Japan index since the beginning of the year.

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The index tracks credit-card purchases of diesel fuel at truckstops across the country and provides a real-time indication of how much freight is moving from ports and factories to consumers.

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The index found a 12 percent improvement in new car fuel economy, which is reflective of wholesale abandonment of V-8-powered SUVs and trucks in favor of four-cylinder compacts.

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Rising fuel prices pushed inflation up in February, with the consumer price index (CPI) gaining 0.7%, its largest monthly gain in nearly four years.

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Food prices, which make up most of the consumer price index, rose 10.61% on year in April, while fuel prices rose 8.10%, the data showed.

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An index measuring the flow of goods through the U.S. by looking into diesel fuel consumption showed a slight monthly drop in April after having gained substantially in March.

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