Gyro Index methodology

The series amount was verified in the original, effective from the start of July. A lower amount applies from 13 February. Paragraph 1(b), PDF page 2. This is a dated floor, not an annual mean.

The series amount applies from the start of July; the agreement provides an earlier increase from 15 February. Articles 1 and 10, PDF pages 2–3. It is not an annual mean.

The series amount applies from the start of July, following an increase from the start of February. Paragraphs 1(b) and 8, PDF page 5. Annual earnings require a separate calculation.

The series amount applies from 15 February. Article 1, PDF page 3. The former description as a weighted annual average was incorrect. The later award 100/1979 applies to the following year.

The series amount applies from the start of January under an instrument published the preceding December. Paragraphs 1(b) and 10, PDF pages 1–2. Publication year is not the year of application.

The instrument supplies a base and January/July increases for the following year, rather than printing the series amount itself. Paragraph 1, PDF page 2. Rounding and the later increase allowed by paragraph 3 remain under review.

The series amount is the basic wage plus the corrective amount from the start of January. Article 3, PDF page 4. Article 8 provides for later indexation: January pay alone is insufficient for annual income.

Monthly floor from the start of the year for an employee aged at least 19 without seniority. Articles 1 and 9, PDF pages 5–6. May and September changes are provided for: the January level does not certify an annual mean.

January salary for an employee aged at least 19 without seniority. Articles 1 and 10, PDF pages 4–5. May and September changes are provided for, so annual earnings require a separate calculation.

Statutory monthly floor for a white-collar employee over 19 with no seniority, read directly from the 1976-1985 agreements (e.g. 6,121 GRD in 1977, 31,932 GRD in 1985).

Regulated maximum price: pita gyro (doner) with a 37-40 g meat portion at 8.50 GRD. A regulated provincial price (Chania), not a free Athens market price.

Primary period report from the National Library newspaper archive. Sets the regulated price of a doner wrap at 7.50 GRD with pita, and records the market price before the order at 8 GRD, which measures the regulated-to-market factor directly.

Primary period report from the National Library newspaper archive. Sets the doner wrap with pita at 10 GRD. The first documented wrap price inside the eleven years that had no source at all.

The original scan, rechecked on 14 September 2026, refers to fresh-pork skewers of 37-40 g and a pricing rule linked to fresh pork. It supplies no sale price. Skewer requirements cannot verify gyro meat weights or a three-point gyro-portion trajectory. The article is verified; the full order and its product-specific scope still require checking.

The original newspaper was checked: 30 GRD, with a previous level of 28 GRD derived from the reported increase. The annual 28.75 GRD estimate is calculated, not a printed annual mean. The issue is dated 14 August 1983. It does not establish the price-change date. The 4.5 months at the new price remain an assumption. The paragraph names no city, shop or sample. It does not establish a national average price. The source describes a kebab-type souvlaki, without explicitly identifying pita, gyro or cooked-meat grams. Matching it to the series product remains an interpretation.

The May rule states that souvlaki prices remain unchanged under that particular measure. It does not establish a full-year freeze. June and July 1979 sources report a later increase. The former zero interpolation weight is withdrawn.

A measurement contemporary with the event rather than a later recollection: “increases of up to 46%, from 350 drachmas to 1.5 euro”. The arithmetic checks out on its own, since EUR 1.50 is 511 GRD. Note the “up to”: 46% is the largest figure recorded, not the median, so EUR 1.50 serves as an upper bound for 2002 rather than a central value.

A prospective 13% pork-price rise, with the order still expected. It neither identifies the first rise of the year nor rules out the earlier gyro-in-pita increase. It supplies no annual price or proof of a full-year freeze.

Grivetti's narrative and expense ledger agree on 35 GRD for one sandwich purchase. They describe the same purchase, not two independent observations. The series retains this single observation. The purchase date, 26 June 1984, was read in the published journal pages. Neither the book's 2015 publication nor the drachma/dollar ratio is used to date the purchase. The narrative places the purchase in Athens' Plaka/Monastiraki, without a shop name. A single central-Athens purchase is not a national sample. A bread sandwich is described, ordered without the usual onions and tomatoes. Pita, meat type, gyro and cooked weight are unspecified. Matching it to a gyro pita remains conditional.

Repository transcription: “souvlaki either skewered or wrapped in pita is a bargain at 30-35dr”. The 1985 edition does not establish previous-year prices. A fieldwork-date statement and the original page are needed. The passage combines skewers and wraps without separate prices or fillings. It remains comparison material awaiting verification, not an independently dated 1984 measurement.

Repository transcriptions; original pages, observation dates and products await verification. Let's Go Greece 2000: “Gyros pita 400dr, souvlaki 250dr”. Lonely Planet Athens 2001: “Thanasis charges 350 dr for takeaway souvlaki wrapped in a small pitta” and “wrapped in pitta bread (450 dr) or pork gyros (400 dr)”. The French Lonely Planet: “Pitta Pan ... du gyros (425 dr) et du souvlaki (360 dr pour un simple)”. The model applies a geographical adjustment from central Athens; this is not a measured national median for that period. The pairs used for the skewer-to-wrap ratio need product and shop matching checks: 250/400 = 0.625 and 200/350 = 0.571.

Calculated annual ceiling from three original orders, not a printed annual mean. The audit page links each original and its legal commencement date. Continuity until the next recorded amendment and use as a national proxy remain assumptions. The existing regulation uplift remains modelled.

The 29 November issue explicitly separates bread (12 to 14 GRD) from pita (15 to 17). The old pita anchor used the bread amounts and is replaced by the Messinia calendar. The original item remains accessible; it does not establish the serving format of its pork line or a skewer-to-wrap ratio.

NOT AN ANCHOR. Two contemporary newspapers dated 6 June 1981 corroborate the same government announcement: Rizospastis describes a complete mathematical formula, while Ipeirotikos Agon says the price would henceforth be based on the wholesale selling price. Both report a forecast rise of 2–3 GRD, not an observed or absolute price. The second paper closes the journalistic corroboration gap, not the legal chain. The order number and text, coefficients, exact product identity, geography, input prices and amendments through 1982 remain unknown. Market Order 14/1989 is a codification of the formula and does not establish when it was introduced. Without the underlying order, no yearly price, range or grade changes.

Aristotelous menus in Thessaloniki for 2006–2010, 2012, 2016 were recovered and visually checked. Base pita prices agree with the legacy transcription. Dates come from host captions. This does not validate implied inflation or a national rate. Spread is charged separately; identical quantity and recipe remain unverified.

Repository guide transcriptions awaiting verification against original pages and fieldwork dates, not a newly accepted anchor. The 2003–2010 series interpolates between 2002 and 2011 using implied gyro-inflation weights that also depend on 1998. Routard and Lonely Planet entries require exact editions, pages, product identification and checks for text reused across editions. The Savas entry attributed to the 2002 edition remains unverified. A lower shop price is not wrong because it disagrees with the series; comparing different shops does not establish an annual market decline. A historical tourism effect on this particular price has not been verified. The number of independent 2000–2001 guides remains unresolved. Earlier transcriptions and numerical claims are retained in the research record; production values and evidence grades are unchanged.

Contemporary report that Chania was among the most expensive markets in the country in 1976. Used as a representativeness check on the 1977 price order: 8.50 GRD is not a "cheap provincial" price, but it is a regulated ceiling, so the free market price is bracketed at 8.50-11 GRD.

A 1989 newspaper report quoting: "Souvlaki with a burger patty served in a pita or a roll 70-80 GRD (from 65 GRD), that is at the same price as the skewer or gyro souvlaki." WHAT WAS ACTUALLY DEREGULATED: the report lists soft drinks, souvlaki WITH A BURGER PATTY, patsas and offal dishes. Gyro and skewer souvlaki were NOT on that list: they stayed regulated under the formula in article 201 of Order 14/1989 (see ad14_1989). They appear only as a level benchmark - the new free range of 70-80 GRD is stated to equal their price. The figure is therefore used as evidence of the market LEVEL for a 1989 wrap, not as proof that gyro was deregulated. Republished by reader.gr on 9 August 2026, seven days before Gyronomics first published, so it is not a circular source. The originating newspaper is not named.

Compiled text with later amendments, not an untouched scan of the original Gazette. Article 201 sets no fixed price but a FORMULA: "Souvlakia from gyro (doner)... weighing at least 37 g, cooked with a fat content up to 22%... The selling price is set from the purchase price per kilo of frozen beef... divided by factors of 10.4 and 12.2 for wholesale and retail respectively." Four things Gyronomics takes from it: (a) the 37 g MINIMUM WEIGHT is confirmed in national law and still in 1989, without establishing a measured average portion or retrospective national evidence for 1977; (b) §6, the wrapped price is the souvlaki price "increased by the purchase price of the pita raised by 50%", an explicit quantified relationship between wrap and bare skewer; (c) §11, a pita must weigh at least 65 g; (d) §12, the article applies "in the Prefecture of Attica and the city of Thessaloniki", and prefects elsewhere set prices "which may not be higher" - this is a ceiling rule allowing equality, not retrospective proof of a Chania–Athens difference in 1977 or a measurement of actual market-price differences. Note that article 201 stayed in force after 1989 (amended by Order 12/1992, Gazette B 314), so souvlaki price regulation did NOT end in 1989.

Primary bulletins, table "Consumer price index". Two uses: (a) the "Hotels, cafes, restaurants" sub-index on the 1994=100 base (1995: 112.1, 1996: 123.4, 1997: 132.6), which extends the catering series behind Eurostat's coverage; (b) verification of the general CPI for 1988-1994 to the first decimal. Note that souvlaki is a named item of the CPI basket from 1988 (ESYE, Revised CPI 1988=100, sub-group "Snacks out", weight 4.4 per mille). In the bulletins examined, we did not locate a separate average-price series for a specified gyro in pita. Basket inclusion alone does not provide an absolute product price. This is a limit of our research, not proof that such records were never published.

Recollections for 1999-2001 where the quoted 100-250 GRD "souvlaki" describes a bare skewer, not a wrapped pita gyro. No longer used as an anchor for the wrapped series; kept only as product-separation evidence.

Model estimate, not a directly observed market price. See the year calculation for the current central value and range. Retrospective references with an unspecified product cannot be classified as skewers solely from their price. The euro-campaign date remains under review.

Retrospective article quoting a 250 GRD "souvlaki" in 1999, with no price bulletin reference and no wrapped/skewer distinction. Used as a lower sanity bound (skewer), not as a wrapped-gyro price.

Documents the mechanism behind the abrupt repricing of low-value items in early 2002: contemporary reports on rounding up, Ministry of Development fines in January 2002, and NSSG releases (inflation 3.7-4% with catering among the fastest-rising categories, August 2002). Explains why the increase clusters around 2002 rather than spreading evenly across five years.

Local recollection of a wrapped pita gyro at €1.00 in Patras shortly after the euro changeover. A regional lower bound consistent with a €1.17 average.

Prices submitted by visitors per year and city. Shown as an independent comparison layer (yearly median); they do NOT affect the index calculation.

Reader’s retrospective report (30 August 2025) describes an illustrative campaign amount, not a market average. Reader dates the spot to 2002; OneMan to 2001. The original broadcast date is unverified. Assignment to 2001 remains a model assumption under review. The link leads to the repost, not an original campaign archive.

National General Collective Labour Agreements: minimum wage floors for a single employee with no seniority increments.

A former method the series no longer uses: an estimate obtained by deflating the 1989 wage backwards using the official annual indexation increases. Since 27 September 2026 the wage for 1976–1993 is the mean of the monthly register (source "Monthly wage register").

The wage for each year 1976–1993 is the mean of the 12 months in the monthly register: the employee gross minimum and the employee contributions of each month, with bonuses and holiday pay as an annual-income convention. Every month carries an evidence grade: A when it rests on an original act or its explicit rule, B when it rests on an institutional retrospective source or a reconstruction from its percentages. The acts (national agreements, arbitration awards, ATA indexation) are sources of the months. Months, grades and sources are published in the payroll_evidence field of data.json. An index convention for an ordinary employee, not legal certification of an individual payslip.

Official series of the statutory monthly minimum wage (source: Ministry of Labour), 1994-2025.

Ministerial Decision 8934/2026 (Gazette 1759/B/27-3-2026): minimum wage of €920 from 1 Apr 2026 (+4.55%).

Retrospective article published on 8 Oct 2025: pita gyro in late-1990s Athens at 180-220 GRD, using 200 GRD as its 1998 example. It provides no contemporaneous menu, sample, method or underlying citation. Retained only as a sensitivity scenario, not a production anchor.

Report of 11 Oct 2025 quoting the head of the Thessaloniki traders' federation and food critic G. Filippatos. Two usable data points: (a) “in the early 2010s the average price of a wrap hovered around EUR 2”, (b) October 2025: EUR 3.20-4.80 across the country, up to EUR 5 in some shops and EUR 5.50-9.90 in tourist hotspots (Mykonos). Tourist prices are excluded from the median.

The June 2022 Pricefox survey: average wrap price EUR 2.50 in 2021 and EUR 3.50 in mid-2022, with an Athens neighbourhood map ranging from EUR 1.90 (Omonia, Ilion, Acharnes) to above EUR 3.70 (Melissia, Kolonaki, Glyfada, Nea Erythraia). It was republished on 15-16 June 2022 by SKAI, Novasports, thetoc, iefimerida and ERT with identical figures, so those outlets are the SAME source, not independent confirmations. Same firm as the December 2025 Pricefox edition: never treat the two as independent for one year. The 2022 figure is a mid-year reading, so it maps to the upper part of the annual average and enters as a range.

A report of 21 May 2025 giving counter prices: Dafni EUR 3.80, Neos Kosmos 3.90-4.00, Ilioupoli 4.20-4.40, Gyzi 3.70-3.90, Kolonaki 3.90-4.40, Kifisia 4.10-4.30, Vouliagmeni 4.00-4.20, Piraeus 3.70-3.90. The mean of the eight midpoints is EUR 4.01. Its value to the series is that these are COUNTER prices: our other 2025 sources are either delivery (Pricefox) or a single shop (Protagon). CAVEAT: the report states no methodology and no number of shops per area, so it enters with a reduced weight.

A report of 24 Apr 2019 quoting the presidents and spokespeople of regional catering associations: Thessaloniki EUR 2.40-2.80, Patras 2.30-2.50, Chania 2.30-2.50, Kozani 2.70-2.80, Volos 2.80-3.00, Corfu 2.40-2.80. It is the fullest NATIONWIDE and CONTEMPORANEOUS picture we have for 2019, and notably from outside Athens, where all our other sources cluster. The mean of the six midpoints (EUR 2.61) is used. ATHENS IS DELIBERATELY EXCLUDED: the EUR 3.00 quoted for it was a price PROPOSED by the association, which is precisely why the Competition Commission opened an investigation into concerted practice - it is not an observed market price.

A CONTEMPORANEOUS May 2019 report (not retrospective) covering four Athens shops and quoting both the old and the new price: Kallithea 2.40 -> 2.60, Pagrati (pork gyro) 2.70 -> 3.00, Ampelokipoi 2.50 -> 2.80, Zografou 2.30 -> 2.70. It therefore yields an observation for 2018 (the "before" prices) and for 2019 (the "after" prices). SAMPLING CAVEAT: the piece is explicitly about shops that RAISED prices, so the sample is biased upward and enters with a reduced weight. Note also that the Pagrati shop quotes 3.00 EUR in May 2019 while the Protagon series places its own Pagrati shop at 2.00 EUR for 2019 - the two sources disagree on level.

A contemporaneous trade account of the within-year path in 2022: a wrap at 2.50 EUR in early January, 2.80 EUR by March; skewer 1.60 -> 1.90 EUR. One shop in a working-class Piraeus area, below the Athens average, and a first-quarter reading in a year of 4.7% catering inflation (the series' annual mean of the CP11.1.1 restaurant CPI). It enters with a low weight and a wide 2.50-3.50 EUR range so it does not drag the annual mean down. The same article states plainly that before the euro "the wrapped souvlaki cost 250 drachmas".

August 2026 survey with a year-on-year comparison: Athens 3.70-4.00 -> 3.80-5.00 EUR, Thessaloniki 4.20-4.80 -> up to 5.30 EUR, Crete 3.80-5.50 -> up to 6.50 EUR. The reported national average is 4.00-4.50 EUR. Its 2025 reading for Athens (3.70-4.00) agrees with our series. Because the measurement is taken mid-summer, 2026 enters as a SOFT anchor: it does not pin the year, it bounds it to 3.80-5.00 EUR.

Harvested from the public listings of THREE ordering platforms (robots open on all three): 1,660 shops in 78 cities, of which 1,599 carry an explicit "pork gyros in pita", read on the same day. Median per shop EUR 4.20, and the median of the city medians also EUR 4.20. CHANNEL ADJUSTMENT: divided by 1.02, the measured platform-to-counter ratio (see PLATFORM_PREMIUM in observations.ts), giving EUR 4.12. WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT: a convenience sample, that is shops listed on a platform, which leans urban and newer. Athens is 38% of the sample against about 35% of the population and Thessaloniki 8% against about 10%, so the sample's geography resembles the population's without matching it. It therefore enters with a range of EUR 4.08-4.28, covering both ends of the channel factor.

Nikos Angelosoulis, president of the Attica grill owners, gives enikonomia.gr dated Attica averages: pork/chicken pita take-away 3.70-4.20 EUR (3.50 EUR before 28 Feb 2026), by delivery 4.00-4.50 EUR (previously 3.70-4.30 EUR), and explicitly "the same cost applies to eating the pita in the shop". Skewer 2.50 EUR, up from 2.30 EUR. WHY IT COUNTS TWICE: it is the SECOND independent source for 2026 (every other August report reproduces the same ANT1 survey), and it is the only source giving THE SAME product in two channels on the same day, which measures the delivery premium without comparing across shops. The same article forecasts a 5-6% rise during May or June 2026, which is NOT used: it is a forecast, not a measurement.

Nationwide report with explicit historical reference points: “in 2015 the wrap cost EUR 2.20” and “in 2019 the wrapped souvlaki was about EUR 2”, with 2022 above EUR 3. The 2015 figure is repeated by cretaone.gr (23 Nov 2025). These are national counter prices rather than one shop, so they are used as LEVEL anchors for the 2010s.

Wrapped pita-gyro prices: 2019 ~€2.00, 2020 €2.50, 2021 €2.70, 2022 €3.20, 2023 €3.30, 2024 €3.80, 2025 €4.70.

An ANNUAL survey of real delivery prices for Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, Volos and Heraklion, per product (pork/chicken gyro, burger, skewer) with min, max and average. Two editions are used: 25 Oct 2024 (national average above EUR 3.60, nothing below EUR 2.80) and 4 Dec 2025 (city averages EUR 4.00-5.35, maximum EUR 6.50 in Crete). A HISTORICAL ERROR NOW FIXED: the October 2024 edition was recorded as "Dec 2025", so 2025 rested on 2024 data. Note that there is NO 2023 edition: the study listed under 2023 on the company's own index is the June 2022 one (see pricefox2022).

The 2019-2025 Protagon series comes from a single shop in Pagrati, an above-average Athens neighbourhood. Visitor reports put Athens/Attica about 8% above the rest of Greece, matching local reporting (Thessaloniki 2022 at 3.90-4.00 EUR vs 4.30 EUR in Athens). A 1/1.08 factor rescales the level to a national median while leaving the rate of change untouched.

2001 price list: chicken pita gyro 530 GRD (€1.56). It refers to a central Athens shop and a premium chicken gyro, so it is used as an upper sanity bound, not as an average price.

Thessaloniki 2022: pita gyro €3.90-4.00.

Where no documented price exists, the price is derived from the nearest documented price by applying the selected scenario's annual rate (general CPI, actual catering CPI, or implied gyro inflation).

Official catering sub-index, annual average rates of change 1998-2025 (2026 is an estimate).

Consumer recollections put a 1985 pita gyro at roughly 45-65 GRD. This is no longer used as an anchor: it is incompatible with the two documented market orders. A free-market price of 60 GRD in 1985 would imply the 1989 regulated ceiling of 65 GRD was only 8.3% higher after four years in which the general CPI rose 84.8%. The 1977 Chania order carried forward on the general CPI alone predicts the 1989 ceiling to within 3.4%, so 1985 is now interpolated instead. Kept here to document why it was rejected, and because of circular-source risk: articles repeating Gyronomics' own estimate are not independent confirmation.