The Federal Reserve is meeting in Washington this week, when it will consider whether to raise interest rates in an effort to tamp down on inflation.

The meetings come at a moment when rising prices are shaping large parts of the U.S. economy and inflation is set to play a key role in next Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Yet members of the bank’s interest rate-setting committee are widely expected to keep benchmark rates steady this month.

There are several reasons the Fed is unlikely to move on rates Wednesday. Most of them come down to a sense among top officials that the central bank shouldn’t rush into interest rate decisions — and that it definitely shouldn’t do so less than a week out from Election Day.

“Inflation remains above our goal,” Michelle Bowman, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, said Oct. 14.…