WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve, meeting for the last time before an election that hinges on the weak economy, edged closer Tuesday to jumping in to help and suggested it’s more worried about prices falling than rising.

The central bank gathered as new figures showed some improvement in home construction. But those same figures showed the pace of building would have to double to contribute much to job growth, underscoring the dire state of the housing market.

The Fed announced no new steps. It signaled that for now it will stand back and see whether the economy can heal on its own.

But a change in its policy language, which is examined with precision by the financial world, showed it was moving closer to acting. The Fed said it was “prepared to provide additional accommodation,” where before it said it would “employ its tools as necessary.” It also concluded that economic growth had slowed over the summer.

That’s all too clear to the nearly 15 million Americans out of work, some of whom scoffed at news earlier this week that the recession had technically ended in June of last year.

Voters will go to the polls Nov. 2 for midterm elections.

The central bank’s statement Tuesday didn’t explicitly mention deflation. But it said inflation measures are “somewhat below” what’s desirable for the economy. Some economists have raised fears about a deflationary spiral – a widespread drop in wages, prices of goods and services and the value of stocks and homes.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Fed once again left a key short-term interest rate near zero, where it has been since December 2008. It also repeated its pledge to hold rates at those ultra-low levels for an “extended period.”

If the economy keeps losing momentum, the Fed will be likelier to act when it meets again, either at its meeting Nov. 2-3 or its last regularly scheduled session of the year on Dec. 14.