Malta is the world’s seventh most expensive country when it comes to purchasing an Apple iPod MP3 music player, the second most expensive in the EU and the most expensive of the countries that have already joined, or that intend to join, the eurozone in the near future.

At $293.83 (Lm89/EUR208.26) for a 4GB Nano iPod, the gadget’s price in Malta outstrips every EU member state with the exception of Bulgaria, according to research carried out in 55 countries by the Commonwealth Bank, one of Australia’s largest and which has branches in Malta.

Like the Big Mac index, made famous by The Economist magazine over the last 20 years, the iPod index aims to gauge the robustness of a country’s currency as well as the purchasing power parity of its citizens.

Maltese consumers are, unfortunately, accustomed to paying higher prices for most commodities than their European neighbours, a problem price transparency resulting from Malta’s pending euro adoption is expected to put into better perspective, but the iPod index places Malta’s high prices in a new light.

What is, in fact, curious about the Maltese market is that not only is the iPod far more expensive in Malta than in other EU member states, according to October 2007 prices, but that sly Maltese electronics retailers have rendered the study’s aim of gauging currency valuation virtually redundant.

With the Maltese lira having been pegged 100 per cent to the euro for the last two years – an obligation for euro adoption known as the Exchange Rate Mechanism – it would naturally follow that the gadget’s price in Malta should be more or less in line with the gadget’s price in the rest of euroland and in Cyprus, which is also participating in the ERM process.

But with the average price of the gadget in 12 eurozone members plus Cyprus standing at just over $210 (Lm63.52/EUR148.64), the price of an iPod in Malta is 39.5 per cent higher than in countries with currencies tied to or using the euro.

The model in fellow ERM member Cyprus, in fact, stood at $201 (Lm60.80/EUR142.28) – some 46 per cent cheaper than in Malta.

But at least Maltese looking for an iPod do not have to go as far as Brazil, where the same model costs no less than $369.61 (Lm111.62 /EUR261.19). Bulgaria, which joined the EU at the beginning of the year and is still considered far away from eurozone membership, was the second most expensive marketplace for the model at $318.60 (Lm96.19/EUR225.09) for the player.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, is the world’s cheapest place to buy an iPod at $148.12 (Lm44.77/EUR104.76), followed by the US at $149 (Lm45/EUR105.30) and Japan at $154.21 (Lm46.58/EUR109.00).

While certain Maltese retail outlets were selling the model at Lm89/EUR208.26 ($293) this week as indicated by the Commonwealth Bank, others had lowered the price to Lm75/EUR175.50 ($247.93) – but even the Lm75/EUR175.50 price tag did not change Malta’s standing against its

fellow EU and eurozone members.