It’s still too early to determine the extent to which President Donald Trump’s tariffs are affecting inflation. Recent data from the Labor Department has shown some evidence that import taxes are pushing up prices, but many companies are holding off on outright price hikes — sometimes resorting to sneakier methods.

But there are plenty of factors at play that are muting the inflationary effect of the import taxes. One of them: the inconsistency of the president’s tariff policies.

“It’s not just a one-size-fits-all,” said Chip West, director of category strategy with RRD, a company that advises businesses on marketing, product packaging, and supply chains. “It definitely depends on the category, it depends on their sourcing, it depends on timing.”

West said there are so many different tariff rates in effect, depending on the country or phase of negotiation it's in, or the product, that any price hikes consumers will see will be staggered and harder to notice.

“It’s not like one thing is going to happen, and it’s going to affect prices in such a way that everything will be going up drastically at once,” West said. “That’s why I think that it’ll be a little bit more quelled.”

Retailers in particular have an incentive to keep price hikes to a minimum. West said consumers are price-sensitive after dealing with inflation for several years, so he’s advising companies to stay competitive.

“Our message has always been: ‘You know what, the consumer mindset has definitely changed, more folks are deal-driven, and do what you need to do to make sure that it’s either a really great offer, or you’re really promoting value,’” West said.

Companies can do that by sacrificing profits, shelving expansion plans, and letting go of employees. Companies can also try to minimize their own tariff bills, said Sarah House, senior economist with Wells Fargo.

“Even as we’ve seen broad increases in tariff rates across different countries, across pretty much all products, we could see U.S. businesses look for suppliers in countries where tariff rates haven’t gone up quite as much,” House said.

And while companies will still feel pressure to pass along the cost of import taxes, House said many will only pass along some of it.

“Maybe increase prices 1% in a given period, even if their own costs went up 10% — just trying to see how much does that dent demand,” House said. “And maybe if it doesn’t, then they increase prices a little bit more later on, so slowly clawing back some of the margins.”

As a result, House said she expects that inflation will only pick up a little into early next year.

“I think the slow pass-through means that maybe inflation doesn’t spike quite as high, so you don’t get quite as rapid of price increases, but also, inflation stays elevated a little bit longer,” House said.

That doesn’t mean that the economy has dodged a bullet. House expects that economic growth will suffer as companies continue to hold off on hiring and spending as a result of tariffs.

Those companies will eventually have to raise prices, said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin.

“They’ve got to protect their profit margins to a certain extent,” Chinn said. “They just cannot absorb the hit forever.”

As more companies realize that they can’t keep absorbing the cost of import taxes, he said the impact on inflation could eventually start to snowball.

“If everybody’s facing the same game, they know they all can’t keep prices low forever and take a hit to their profit margins, they’re going to start raising them more rapidly,” Chinn said.

A recent report from Goldman Sachs found that consumers have only been paying about 22% of the cost of tariffs, at least through June. But if today’s tariffs stick around, that share could rise to almost 70%.