Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic gave a warm welcome to the visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Nikola Tesla Airport on Tuesday night local time.
Vucic, along with his wife Tamara Vucic, former Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and his wife Dragica Nikolic, Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic and Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, received Xi at the airport.
Xi is on a state visit to Serbia at the invitation of Vucic, and will then head for Hungary, the last stop of his six-day European tour.
Xi's visit to Serbia is his second visit to the country in eight years.
Serbian president welcomes Xi at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport
The depreciation of Japanese yen has caused an old coffee shop in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan to suffer rising financial strain due to surging import costs.
The coffee shop, with a 50-year history, is facing fund squeeze. The owner, 82-year-olld Hajime Yoneyama said that the depreciation has led to increased prices for imported raw materials, particularly coffee beans sourced mainly from Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia, resulting in a 20 percent surge in purchase costs.
"The purchase price (of coffee beans) has increased by 20 percent. I feel that the prices of vegetables and oil have also increased by at least 20 percent. Now the prices of these things continue to rise, with no sign of stopping. The expenditure situation of the store may become more severe in the future," said him.
Yoneyama said that he had to raise the prices to sustain the coffee shop's operation.
"Recently we had to raise the price. Previously, a cup of coffee cost 500 yen. It's no longer sustainable (without price increases) and now it's up to 600 yen," said the owner.
Furthermore, in an effort to cut costs, the elderly Yoneyama works with just one employee, yet the store business kept crippling. He said that a significant portion of his pension funds is used to cover store expenses and employee wages.
Locals worry that if the weak yen trend persists, the pressure on livelihoods will further intensify.
"The prices of everything are increasing, food, drink, vegetables. It would be great if there was a solution. Medical supplies are also an issue that needs to be considered. I do worry about what the future will bring," said a local resident.
"Not only are labor costs rising, but gas costs are also rising, so operators need to cut expenses, such as advertising expenses, and the work that they originally paid to hire people to do may now be borne entirely by the operators themselves," said another resident.
Japan’s time-honored coffee shop face fund squeeze due to weakening yen
