Good News: Zimbabwe Banks Open for the Holidays

The bad news is their currency is virtually worthless.

That, of course, is a plot by the Western world, according to Robert Mugabe.

Banks in Zimbabwe will remain open on Christmas Day and Boxing Day to allow people to change temporary currency into new banknotes before 31 December.

Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono made the announcement after introducing higher denomination notes last week in a bid to tackle serious cash shortages.

But the move has failed to reduce the long bank queues of recent weeks.

The country is already suffering from rampant inflation, mass unemployment and shortages of fuel and basic goods.

Critics of President Robert Mugabe accuse him of allowing the economy to go to ruin but he has remained defiant, blaming the problems on a Western plot to oust him from power.

Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, told the BBC it was hoped the queues would disappear within a day after the higher notes were introduced last week.

In complete economic ruin, Zimbabwe is set to once again "re-elect" the brutal Mugabe. Expect conditions to get worse, if that's possible.

Notes worth 250,000, 500,000 and 750,000 Zimbabwean dollars entered circulation last Thursday.

The 200,000 dollar bill is being phased out by 31 December, despite only being introduced in July.

Earlier this month, correspondents say a single match stick cost about Z$3,000.

Zimbabwe has the highest level of inflation in the world at more than 8,000%.

It costs $3000 for a match stick? OK, I'm not sure what that amounts to in American dollars, but it puts matters in perspective when you hear nonstop whining here about gasoline costing $3 a gallon.