"I expect the Bank to acknowledge the protest and rank Croatia higher," Sanader said and received an applause.
Answering a question from Zeljka Antunovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the PM insisted that he had been right to strongly protest against the World Bank ranking and reiterated that the report in which it was made was not correct.
"Work instead of protesting," Antunovic countered.
Answering more questions from MP's, Sanader said the past tourist season had been excellent, one of the best since Croatia gained independence, and that exports were growing faster than imports.
In this year's first seven months exports grew at a rate of 12.2 per cent, while imports grew at an 8.1 per cent rate, Sanader said, voicing confidence the trend would continue.
Finance Minister Ivan Suker said that VAT revenue in July and August, the peak tourist months, was up 16 per cent from the March and April, while excise revenue was up almost 40 per cent, with excise revenue from tobacco recording a 45 per cent increase.
Suker said this indicated that tourism revenue generated the growth of budgetary revenue and economic growth.
Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec said the unemployment rate in August was below 17 per cent, the lowest in several years.
He refuted claims that the government did not encourage employment, saying that 1.5 billion kuna was spent for that purpose in the last two years.
Commenting on the sale of the TLM light metal factory from Sibenik, PM Sanader said he would not accept accusations being levelled at the government for everything that went wrong in the country.
He said the government had nothing to do with the events at the factory and that the decision to sell had been made by TLM itself. He added that all tenders must be transparent, that contracts should be landed on the basis of the best offer, and that investors should be guaranteed legal security for their investments.
(EUR1 = 7.4 kuna)