France, April 11 -- Zimbabwe's new gold-backed currency is designed to fight inflation and wean the economy off the US dollar, but it has suffered a chaotic start with shops accepting only US dollars on Tuesday and Zimbabweans queuing up outside banks for hours to access their savings.

The ZiG - short for Zimbabwe Gold - officially started trading on Monday, just days after the country's central bank announced it would replace the Zimbabwean dollar, which has tumbled in value over the past year.

In March, inflation reached a seven-month high of 55 percent.

It's Zimbabwe's sixth attempt at creatinga new currency since 2008, andmany in the country were not prepared for the switch.

Most banks had their systems offline on Tuesday, as they...