In the context of Paris Club reschedulings, the term refers to a repayment schedule where principal repayments gradually increase over the repayment period, reflecting an expected improvement in the repayment capacity of a debtor country. Creditors have made increasing use of the graduated payments, replacing flat payment schedules where equal amounts of principal repayments were made over the repayment period: from the creditor perspective, graduated payments provide for principal repayments starting earlier, and, from the debtor perspective, they avoid a large jump in debt service.