BUENOS AIRES: Argentina's peso began to recover on Friday as markets opened, making a tiny gain of 0.68 percent, after losing 20 percent of its value against the dollar over the previous two days.

The peso was trading at almost 40 to the dollar at the end of Thursday as Argentina's central bank hiked interest rates to 60 percent in a desperate bid to stabilize a currency in freefall since President Mauricio Macri requested an acceleration to IMF-agreed funding a day earlier.