diff --git a/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx b/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx
index 34b5277d0b94ee..bd188dd46639fe 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ from tslibs.conversion cimport convert_to_tsobject
 from tslibs.timedeltas cimport convert_to_timedelta64
 from tslibs.timezones cimport get_timezone
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
-from pandas.core.dtypes.cast import construct_1d_array_from_listlike
 
 iNaT = util.get_nat()
 
@@ -351,6 +350,7 @@ def infer_dtype(object value, bint skipna=False):
     else:
         if not isinstance(value, list):
             value = list(value)
+        from pandas.core.dtypes.cast import construct_1d_array_from_listlike
         values = construct_1d_array_from_listlike(value)
 
     values = getattr(values, 'values', values)