French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday his country was making progress on economic reforms and that German comments on a lack of growth in France were sometimes a "caricature."

"I am aware that here in Germany people like saying that France is unwilling to reform and that now France is a sick man," Valls told a conference in Berlin hosted by the BDI industry association.

"I look at my country with a very clear eye. I know the obstacles and challenges that France is facing. But if Germany managed ... why shouldn’t France be able to do the same?" he said.

"Of course it takes time, but where there is a will there is a way ... We are in a debt spiral that is no longer sustainable," he told the conference.

(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Writing by Madeline Chambers)