A UK recession will hit Northern Ireland worst, the Ulster Bank has warned.

The gloomy prediction has been attributed to the province's reliance on the ailing construction industry, which has been in free fall for more than a year

Unemployment in Northern Ireland could top 50,000 as a consequence, the bank suggested, in its latest economic review.

Ulster Bank Economist Richard Ramsey said the local economy is more exposed to the wider financial challenges due to its dependency on the housing and retail sectors.

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He said: "Since the middle of 2007, the local economy has experienced a rapid slowdown."

This rate has accelerated much faster than the UK average, according to the economist.

"Indeed Northern Ireland has experienced the sharpest contraction in business activity of all the UK regions during the 12 months to September 2008," said Mr Ramsey.

"Construction has borne the brunt of the slowdown; however the local manufacturing sector recorded the sharpest falls in output and employment in the third quarter of this year.

"As our two biggest trading partners, the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, enter recession, local exporters will be impacted significantly and exports in 2009 will fall," he added.

(PR/JM)