Finnish telecom giant Nokia said Thursday it could cut its workforce by as many as 14,000 people after it reported lower-than-expected third-quarter profits.

"In the third quarter we saw an increased impact on our business from the macroeconomic challenges," CEO Pekka Lundmark said in a statement.

Nokia's savings program is expected to reduce the firm's employees to as low as 72,000, reducing costs by up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.14 billion) by 2026, the company said.

The program targets business areas Mobile Networks, Cloud and Network Services and corporate functions.

Nokia reported that its profits reached 133 million euros in the third quarter, a 69 percent drop from the same period a year ago.

"The earnings were much weaker than expected and the outlook is more uncertain. So it's not looking that good in the short term for Nokia," Atte Riikola, an analyst at equity analysis firm Inderes, told AFP.

The telecommunications equipment maker, which is locked in a battle for 5G networks with Swedish rival Ericsson and China's Huawei, said its sales dropped by 20 percent to 4.98 billion euros in the third quarter compared to 2022.

"We saw some moderation in the pace of 5G deployment in India which meant the growth there was no longer enough to offset the slowdown in North America," Lundmark said.

Despite the uncertainty in the third quarter, Nokia expects to see "improvement in our network businesses in the fourth quarter."

But Riikola believed that Nokia's "estimates will come down pretty dramatically."

"There's a possibility for a negative profit warning," he added.