Jovan Gligovic sits on his bed all day wearing a woollen hat and flannel pyjamas, basking in the limited sunlight that enters the small apartment he shares with his wife and their middle-aged granddaughter near the centre of Belgrade.

"When I retired early in 1962 because of weak lungs, my wife and I had enough for a humble yet decent living," Mr Gligovic recalls. "Then, in the 1990s, I suddenly couldn't buy a kilo of corn meal for my whole monthly pension."