April 5 (Bloomberg) -- British companies made the most profit warnings since 2001 in the first quarter as the deepest recession in a generation intensified, Ernst & Young LLP said.

U.K. companies issued 117 statements that their forecasts may be too high, the most in eight years and the third quarter in a row when warnings exceeded 100, the business consultancy said today. The highest number came from support services providers, followed by media and industrial engineering.

The British economy contracted the most since 1980 in the fourth quarter and the Bank of England says that the first quarter had a similar deterioration. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government is ramping up spending and guaranteeing bank assets to revive economic growth after the central bank cut the benchmark interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in March.

“The prospects for 2009 appear as uncertain and as gloomy as at any point in the crisis,” said Keith McGregor, an analyst at Ernst & Young. “We still believe that the worst of the downturn for many companies is yet to come.”

Support services company Rentokil Initial Plc, the world’s largest pest-control provider, on Feb. 20 canceled its dividend after profit fell in the fourth quarter. The FTSE 100 stock index has dropped about 30 percent in the past year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Swint in London at bswint@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 4, 2009 19:01 EDT