| Henrique Medina Carreira | |
| Office: | Minister of Finance |
| Term Start: | 23 July 1976 |
| Term End: | 30 January 1978 |
| Primeminister: | Mário Soares |
| Predecessor: | Francisco Salgado Zenha |
| Successor: | Vítor Constâncio |
| Birth Date: | 14 December 1930 |
| Death Place: | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Nationality: | Portuguese |
| Party: | Socialist Party Independent |
| Children: | 1 daughter |
| Alma Mater: | University of Lisbon |
| Profession: | Jurist, financier, lawyer |
Henrique Medina Carreira (14 December 1930 – 3 July 2017)[1] was a Portuguese jurist and financial expert who served as Minister of Finance from 1976 to 1978.[2]
Medina Carreira was born in Bissau, in what was then the Portuguese overseas territory of Guinea, in 1931. His father was a historian whose hometown was Ilha do Fogo, also in Portuguese Africa. Medina Carreira went to Lisbon where he studied at the Pupilos do Exército military school and obtained a degree in mechanical engineering which in turn allowed him to work at Companhia União Fabril conglomerate's steelworks. He received a degree in law from the University of Lisbon in 1962 and studied economics at the ISEG/Technical University of Lisbon, but did not graduate.
After the Carnation Revolution, in 1975, Pinheiro de Azevedo called him to the Sixth Provisional Government as Undersecretary of State for the Budget, a position he left shortly afterwards to take over the functions of the Minister of Finance in the I Constitutional Government of Portugal. In 1978 he resigned from all his duties in the Portuguese Socialist Party. He left in disagreement on the economic policy adopted by the ruling party.
He worked extensively as a lawyer, business consultant and university professor, and became well known due to the commentaries and opinions he posted in the Portuguese media, such as in the SIC Notícias show Plano Inclinado, warning about the risk of collapse of the Portuguese public finances – an event that would happen in 2011 in the 2010-2012 Portuguese financial crisis.[3]
Medina Carreira died on 3 July 2017 at the age of 86.[4]