Strong royalty collections from a buoyant oil and gas sector along with spending containment enabled the Argentine Province of Neuquen to build its fiscal and liquidity buffers. This has strengthened Neuquen's ability to manage macroeconomic volatility and a cutback in transfers from the federal government. We revised up the stand-alone credit profile to 'b-' from 'ccc+' following the improvements in Neuquen's fiscal performance and cash position. However, our ratings on subnational entities are capped by our transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment on Argentina. Therefore, we affirmed our 'CCC' long-term issuer credit ratings on the Province of Neuquen and maintained the stable outlook. On Dec. 18, 2024, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'CCC' foreign and local currency long-term issuer credit ratings
