I'm so bummed out by this. Rumours had me hyped for a cheaper package, but seeing as it's 1599 USD in my country, I will not be looking into buying one now.

In terms of "Apple units" it's a slight jump

They tend to price their stuff in units of $100.

So the jump is 2 'apple unit' uptick.

Could there be economic reasons for the price jump?

The Surface Pro was in a similar price region. I'm interested to see if Microsoft raises the prices of the new Surface Generation too. It looks like new computers are getting more expensive overall. Maybe it's because the hardware lives longer nowadays.

Fully spec'd and w/Apple Care it comes to $2,848 before tax (~$3,100 after)