The pita gyro rating
The same index, in the letters everyone understands. The letters add no information: they are the band the published number falls into, and the boundaries are printed.
Greece · pita gyro · minimum wage
The net minimum wage buys 214 classic pita gyros a month, which falls in band CCC. The three years 2023 to 2026 give −16.7%.
It is the worst band in the 51 years of the series, first reached in 2024. One year alone stands at the top: 1985, 1989, with 504 gyros.
2026 is measured again before December, so its grade can still move.
Gyronomics · gyronomics.gr · 2026.10.10-monthly-bulletin · CC BY 4.0
What this is not
- It is not a credit rating. It has nothing to do with the Greek state, with debt, with any issuer of securities, and it forecasts nothing. One quantity is graded: how many pita gyros a wage buys.
- The letters add no information. It is a relabelling. CCC means exactly "214 gyros", no more and no less. Anyone who dislikes letters can read the number and lose nothing.
- There is no composite. No weighting, no hidden factors, no committee. One quantity, one scale. If you disagree with the grade, you disagree with the boundaries, and the boundaries are below.
- It is not the cost of living. One good is not a basket. What the Index does not measure, and the same wage across five goods.
The scale
Bands of 50 gyros a month, on round numbers. The scale runs down to D, far below anything measured: a scale that cannot express further decline is useless exactly when you need it.
| Grade | Gyros a month | Years |
|---|---|---|
| AAA | 500+ | 2 |
| AA | 450–499 | 13 |
| A | 400–449 | 12 |
| BBB | 350–399 | 5 |
| BB | 300–349 | 11 |
| B | 250–299 | 5 |
| CCC today | 200–249 | 3 |
| CC | 150–199 | — |
| C | 100–149 | — |
| D | 0–99 | — |
The outlook is a rule, not an opinion: the change over the last 3 years, with a threshold of 2 points either way. Today −16.7%, therefore negative. The number is printed beside the word so nobody has to trust the word.
The history
Every change of letter from 1976 to today. The history is derived: an action is any year that changed band, and none can be added or left out by hand.
| Year | Action | Gyros |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | BB BBB | 325 351 (+26) |
| 1979 | BBB BB | 351 346 (−5) |
| 1981 | BB BBB | 346 363 (+17) |
| 1982 | BBB AA | 363 475 (+112) |
| 1985 | AA AAA | 491 504 (+13) |
| 1986 | AAA AA | 504 461 (−43) |
| 1989 | AA AAA | 476 505 (+29) |
| 1990 | AAA AA | 505 483 (−22) |
| 1993 | AA A | 450 440 (−10) |
| 1994 | A AA | 440 454 (+14) |
| 1996 | AA A | 451 448 (−3) |
| 1997 | A AA | 448 462 (+14) |
| 1999 | AA A | 460 419 (−41) |
| 2001 | A BBB | 400 391 (−9) |
| 2004 | BBB A | 398 403 (+5) |
| 2012 | A BB | 416 336 (−80) |
| 2017 | BB B | 303 292 (−11) |
| 2019 | B BB | 288 306 (+18) |
| 2021 | BB B | 304 281 (−23) |
| 2024 | B CCC | 257 228 (−29) |
The largest annual fall in the series is 2012: 416 to 336 gyros, 80 fewer within one year. The largest rise is 1982, with 112 more. Both are measured in gyros rather than notches, because notches depend on the width of a band and gyros do not.
The table prints the move in gyros beside each action, so that events can be told apart from a boundary merely being crossed.
How arbitrary the boundaries are
The width of a band is a convention, and a convention is not allowed to produce the conclusion. With bands of 40, 50, 60 gyros the current letter comes out different each time.
| Band width | Today | Worst ever? | Top |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | C | yes | 1985, 1989 |
| 50 our choice | CCC | yes | 1985, 1989 |
| 60 | B | yes | 1985, 1989 |
The letter moves, the ranking does not. Under every width, today stands on the worst band ever reached and 1985, 1989 stands alone at the top. Those are the two things this page claims, and a check demands at the same time that the letter really does change, otherwise nothing is being tested.
The number behind every letter is the published Index, and this page does not change it.