Two officials have been jailed for divulging state secrets in relation to China's confidential economic statistics, procurators said Monday.

Sun Zhen, a former official from the National Bureau of Statistics, was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking 27 classified items between June 2009 and January of this year, said Li Zhongcheng, a senior procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, at a press conference held by the State Council's Information Office on Monday.

Wu Chaoming, a former research fellow from an institute under the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, was sentenced to jail for six years, Li said.

Wu was convicted of intentionally disclosing 25 classified items between January and June 2010.

Sun and Wu were convicted and sentenced by the Xicheng District People's Court in Beijing. Neither of them lodged an appeal.

The statistics leaked by the two officials included those regarding China's industrial added value output, gross domestic product (GDP), consumer price index (CPI), broad money supply (M2), and narrow measure of money supply (M1), Li said.

The leaked items are considered to be state secrets before they are officially released.

Li said authorities have also investigated four employees of security businesses in relation to the leaks.

The illegal disclosure of the country's economic statistics can disturb the market order and harm the interests of the country and its people, and China will continue its heavy-handed approach against such crimes, Li said.

An investigation of the two officials' cases showed that they were driven by illegal benefits, with a lack of legal consciousness also playing a role, Du Yongsheng, spokesman for the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, said at the press conference.

Journalists and media organizations should abide by the rules and ethics of their trade and refrain from violating laws regarding state secrecy in their reporting, Du said.