Manea Mănescu (9 August 1916 – 27 February 2009) was a Romanian communist politician who served as Prime Minister for five years (29 March 1974 – 29 March 1979) during Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist regime.

Mănescu's father was a Communist Party veteran from Ploiești, who in the early 1920s supported the transformation of the Socialist Party into the Communist Party. In 1944, after the coup d'état, he worked together with Nicolae Ceauşescu, his future brother-in-law, in the Communist Youth Union. In 1951, Mănescu was appointed as head of the Department of Economics at Bucharest University and Director General of the Central Directorate of Statistics. 

He served as Finance Minister from 1955 until 1957.

In December 1967, he was appointed Chairman of the Economic Council. He was promoted to full membership of the Executive Committee in December 1968 and, after holding various positions in the party and government, and in March 1973 he became Prime Minister, a position he held until 1979, when he retired, reportedly due to ill health. He died in 2009, aged 92, 20 years after the Romanian Revolution that overthrew Ceauşescu and his regime.

Family

Mănescu's wife, Maria Munteanu Mănescu, was a well known pediatrician.

In December 1973, she was named Vice Chairman of the Romanian Red Cross Society. She was also named a member of the (Romanian) National Council of Women in April 1978. It is not clear if the Mănescus had any children.