diff --git a/beat/core/stats.py b/beat/core/stats.py
index c32021e836fca0fef9b36ec4355092049f7921b6..7987e6166d25ef40b64410c34613c242fff29bcf 100644
--- a/beat/core/stats.py
+++ b/beat/core/stats.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ Forward impored from :py:mod:`beat.backend.python.stats`:
 import os
 import copy
 
-import simplejson
+import simplejson as json
 
 from . import schema
 from . import prototypes
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ class Statistics(object):
             dict: JSON representation
         """
 
-        return simplejson.dumps(self._data, indent=indent)
+        return json.dumps(self._data, indent=indent)
 
     def as_dict(self):
         """Returns self as a dictionary"""