Empirical research on regional financial development level of China

Regional finance plays a tremendous role in promoting regional economic development. This paper ranks and clusters the regional financial development level of thirty-one provinces and municipalities of China from 2006 to 2008 by using factor and cluster analysis methods. Analysis results show that the difference of regional financial development level not only exists between the east and Midwest, but obviously in every region; comprehensive level of financial development in central region is slightly lower than western region; financial development level of China can be divided into four echelons by region. To narrow the difference of the regional finance development, the paper puts forward some suggestions such as implementing the financial regulation policy differently; putting the regional development policy into practice; carrying out the financial development mode and policy differentially and so on.