ATHENS—Greece plans to return to the international bond markets gradually next year if the country's economy improves and sovereign debt borrowing rates continue to drop, Deputy Finance Minister George Chouliarakis said Thursday.

His comments come one day after eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund struck a deal that cleared the way for the release of around â,¬10 billion ($11.15 billion) in fresh loans for Greece as part of its bailout.

"We will begin efforts to return to markets in 2017," Mr. Chouliarakis said at a news conference in Athens Thursday. "We will not be in a rush... Our goal is not to be in a rush, but rather to create confidence."

Since Greece entered a bailout regime in 2010, it has been locked out of international markets, with a brief break in 2014.

Mr. Chouliarakis said Greece won't be able to maintain a primary surplus of 3.5% of gross domestic product in the long term. He added, however, that there will be no need to adopt further austerity measures until the end of the bailout program in 2018.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said he hopes the country will soon be eligible for the European Central Bank's government-bond purchase program, known as quantitative easing.

"This would help improve liquidity conditions, but most importantly it would give a signal that the Greek economy is returning to normality," Mr. Tsakalotos said at the news conference.

According to a person familiar to the matter, Greek government bonds are likely to remain excluded from the ECB's government-bond purchase program until at least the second half of the year.

The latest eurozone bailout agreement set a road map for debt relief for Greece, but it also pushed back the timeline for action until 2018.

"Greece's international creditors officially acknowledged for the first time that the country's debt is not sustainable," Mr. Tsakalotos said.

Mr. Tsakalotos added that creditors in the latest eurozone bailout agreement have committed themselves to a road map of measures on debt relief that will be activated when necessary.

The deal broke an impasse between Germany and the IMF that was holding up Greece's bailout funding for this summer, but it set up tough negotiations for this fall and beyond over the country's debt and economic overhauls.

"The IMF has already committed that it will participate in the program," Mr. Tsakalotos said, adding that since the fund is pushing for more concrete debt relief measures before defining its role in the third bailout program the country will most likely benefit further.

Mr. Tsakalotos also said that easing capital controls imposed in June of last year depends on the return of bank deposits to Greek lenders. "Confidence is important for lifting the capital controls," he added.

Tom Fairless contributed to this article.

Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 26, 2016 16:35 ET (20:35 GMT)