The Bank of Japan is considering introducing unlimited purchases of government bonds to provide ample liquidity to stabilize financial markets rattled by the global spread of the new coronavirus, sources close to the matter said Friday.

The BOJ will discuss the removal of its annual target of bond purchasing of up to 80 trillion yen ($743 billion) at its next policy meeting on Monday, as part of its additional monetary easing steps to bolster companies hit by the virus spread, the sources said.

The central bank has pledged to buy government bonds in a flexible manner to conduct its yield curve control, which guides long-term interest rates at around zero percent as part of its ultraeasy monetary policy while maintaining short-term rates at minus 0.1 percent.

The planned move follows the U.S. Federal Reserve's similar action decided last month to expand its purchases of government bonds to an unlimited amount and the Japanese government's emergency economic package totaling 117.1 trillion yen.

With the plan, the BOJ will continue to buy bonds so as to curb a surge in long-term yields following an increase in government debt issuance to finance the package.

The BOJ is also considering increasing corporate bond and commercial paper buying after raising its target of such purchases in March to 4.2 trillion yen and 3.2 trillion yen, respectively, until the end of September.

At the latest policy meeting, the BOJ decided to provide one-year loans with no interest to financial institutions against corporate debt worth about 8 trillion yen held as collateral.

Policy Board members will look into a wider range of risk assets as collateral so banks can boost lending to companies that are struggling amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, the sources said.