China's top legislature adopted Saturday a revision to the Law on Statistics, which is intended to prevent the falsification of official data.

The revised law, to take effect on January 1, 2010, aims to impose severe penalties on officials who "intervene in government statistical work and manipulate or fabricate data."

The law was enacted in 1983.

The ninth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, closed its latest six-day, bi-monthly session on Saturday.

Source: Xinhua