The Philippine peso slid to its day's low of P63.15 against the US dollar in morning trading before closing at a new historic low at P63.06 at the Bankers Association of the Philippines on Thursday.

The peso ended at P62.87 on Wednesday. The previous all-time low of the peso against the US dollar was P62.90 on October 8.

Volume jumped from Wednesday's $941 million to Thursday's $1.50 billion.

Noel Leyco, chief economist of the Credit Rating and Investors Service, told ANC Market Edge that ''reaching 63 was not a surprise.'' ''I think was expected soon as the US Fed increased their interest rate.''

He said the central bank can increase interest rate to defend the peso ''but it is not going to do much.'' ''The dollar is really strong and increasing the interest rate will only create a small dent in the US dollar,'' he added.

Leyco said the central bank can also release its foreign reserves, but he added that ''it is dwindling.'' ''It is below $100 billion. It leaves the Bangko Sentral ''''without a lot of room to arrest the continuing decline of the Philippines peso,'' he said.

He added that what the government can do is to address the inflationary impact of the peso depreciation ''because almost everything is being imported.''

The central bank's policy setting body, the Monetary Board, will be meeting on Oct. 22.

Analyst Jonathan Ravelas told Bilyonaryo News Channel that the peso's decline since the start of the year has been driven by geopolitical events. He cited that the situation ''has been aggravated by the renewed attacks' between the US, Iran and its allies including Saudi Arabia.'' "That pushed oil prices above $100.''

Ravelas said the central bank ''might to become aggressive in the rate hike as we have to address the inflation expectations on people especially with the recent survey that we have seen.'' PHS