Danish brewer Carlsberg Group said on Wednesday that it lowered its earnings expectations for 2014, owing to recent events in Eastern Europe.

In its half-year financial report, Carlsberg said "the consumer sentiment and the outlook for some of the economies in Eastern Europe are becoming increasingly challenging and uncertain due to the recent macro events."

Carlsberg now expected its operating profit to decline low- to mid-single-digit percentages for 2014 against a previous low-single-digit growth expectation.

It also forecast its net profit to decline by mid- to high-single-digit percentages, against a previous expectation of low-single-digit growth.

Carlsberg Group's operating profit grew 1 percent to 4.05 billion Danish kroner (724.7 million U.S. dollars) in the six months ending June 2014, up from 4.03 billion kroner for the same period last year.

Meanwhile, net revenue increased 1 percent year-on-year to 32.06 billion kroner in the first half of 2014, as a result of 7 percent negative impact from currencies and 4 percent positive impact through acquisition of China's Chongqing Brewery.

Calsberg said the negative currency impact was due to weaker currencies in several markets, including Russia, Ukraine, Norway and China.

While the group saw its market share increase in the Asian region and was flat in Western Europe, the market share in Russia declined by an estimated 6-7 percent due to the uncertain macro-environment, weak economic development and bad weather.

Furthermore, its Ukrainian beer market declined by some 10 percent due to the very challenging and uncertain macroeconomic climate coupled with a 43 percent beer tax increase in May, it said.

The brewer believed that the beer category will deteriorate further in the second half of 2014. In addition, it expected considerably less stocking among distributors in Russia than in recent year.

"We believe the Eastern European beer markets will be impacted further as consumers are facing increased challenges and this will impact the Group's profits negatively this year," said Carlsberg CEO Joergen Buhl Rasmussen in the statement.

Carlsberg's half-year result disappointed shareholders, triggering a four-percent fall in its share price in morning trading at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange on Wednesday.