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Nokia CEO sees 'business as usual'; no change to outlook

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Nokia, the world's third-largest mobile equipment maker, has seen nothing in its business that would lead it to change its financial outlook, its chief executive said on Sunday.

"Nothing specific has happened in the past couple of weeks. It is kind of business as usual," Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said in response to a reporter's question during a press conference ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.

Suri reiterated previous comments that the Finnish company has made that it stands to benefit over the course of 2015 from the sharp drop in the value of the euro against the U.S. dollar.

In late January, the company said that for its mainstay Nokia Networks’ business, it expected net sales and operating margins in the first quarter to decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, typically a seasonally stronger quarter.

For the full 2015 year, Nokia has said it expects operating margins for the Networks division to recede to its long-term target range of 8 to 11 percent, a decline from the 12.2 percent it reported for the full year in 2014.

(Reporting By Eric Auchard; Editing by Susan Fenton)