Just to add something to this really old discussion. I looked up prices at Apple's online UK and France stores. These are the prices in Pounds and Euros without any tax. Small caveat is that listed on the UK site are the new MacBooks, the prices I have for the UAE are for the previous gen (before the latest bump) as is the case for the France store. But in the US the prices stayed the same, so assuming that will be the same here, the comparison is valid I think.